【World Premiere】Festival of the Evening Squall for Koto Ensemble (2024–2025) – Noel Hiyamizu

Festival of the Evening Squall for Koto Ensemble (2024–2025) Composed by Noel Hiyamizu Duration: approx. 8’50” Commissioned by: Wakayama Prefectural Hashimoto High School, Traditional Japanese Music Club =========== As a child, I disliked sudden summer rainstorms. The thunder was frightening, and the rain felt like it interrupted play. At some point, though, that feeling quietly faded away. An evening squall transforms the world in an instant. Thunder and rain envelop the landscape, reshaping it into something unfamiliar. The heat is washed away, leaving behind the coolness of dusk. The cries of cicadas, the lingering memory of oppressive heat— a remnant of the old world. What remains is a place different from where we were just moments before. A world we assumed would continue unchanged is shaken, and a sudden realm of rain arrives. Ephemeral, yet timeless—a fleeting festival. A rain of blessing. A joyful downpour that quenches thirst. Children run through backstreets, celebrating the rain with wild dances. The rain becomes a benediction. Poet Shigekichi Yagi once wrote: “I want to crouch beside the rain and watch what the rain does.” This is a rain of koto sounds that envelops the world— revealing many expressions as it arrives, and as it departs. A moment of festival. When an evening squall comes, the world seems to melt and transform. Boundaries are washed away. The world blurs and drifts— to somewhere else, into the rain of that distant day, beyond the crossing memories. =========== World Premiere: May 18, 2025 Wakayama Prefectural Hashimoto High School, Traditional Japanese Music Club Special Program, EXPO PLL Talks 3rd Japan International Art Festival “Future Co-Creation & Japanese Traditional Performing Arts EXPO” (Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai – Pop-up Stage North) Video Recording: Wakayama Prefectural High School Cultural Festival Traditional Japanese Music Division August 6, 2025 Wakayama Castle Hall – Main Hall Organized by: Wakayama Prefectural High School Cultural Federation Wakayama Prefectural Board of Education Video © IHARA PRO Official Website: https://www.noelhiyamizu.com Contact: https://www.noelhiyamizu.com/contact