We were able to spend a lovely time together with everyone who made the trip from abroad here in the ancient Japanese city of Kyoto. The symposium ended up far surpassing our original expectations.
Our choral friends assembled here, including the choirs that were invited, as well as the audience, were able to turn the auditorium, the International Conference Hall, and the roadside leading up here all into "places of music." These past eight days have been truly wonderful.
In Japan, we have also realized that our traditional forms of music are connected to both our present and our future. We have resolved to continue to study these forms of music intensely.
I would like to give my sincerest thanks to those participants, choir members, and instructors who have made the trip to this symposium from abroad. In addition, I would also like to thank our Japanese friends. You were all able to raise an extraordinary amount of money in the fundraising drive that was held throughout the country, and were also graciously willing to host community concerts and satellite concerts. And I am especially proud of those of you from here in Kyoto and the Kansai region for your unfailingly calm and efficient preparations for this symposium. Once again, I would like to thank everyone for being a part of this symposium. And thank you all for bringing us so much happiness and joy.
I sincerely hope we will be able to see each other again at the next Symposium on Choral Music, in Copenhagen.
Cantus populi, cantus mundi. Cantus omnibus unus.
Nobuyoshi Yoshimura
Chairperson, Executive Committee, 7th World Symposium on Choral Music
President, Japan Choral Association