On March 3, students and guests affiliated with Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU), a sister college of Tenri University, visited the Home of the Parent and performed at a joint concert at Yoki Hall. The Saginaw Valley State University Concert Choir and Collegium and the Bay Chorale of Bay City, Michigan, were the featured guest performers at this joint concert.
The concert began with the Gagaku Music Society of Tenri University performing the vocal piece Nukikawa. SVSU students and family members showed keen interest in the unfamiliar sounds that flowed from the gagaku instruments. The Tenri Kyoko Gakuen High School Wadaiko Club later gave a thrilling and powerful performance of traditional Japanese drumming.
The SVSU Choir and Collegium and the Bay Chorale performed a variety of jazz, gospel, pop, and traditional music, which included a rendition of the Japanese folk song Sakura Sakura. Elements from music both East and West fused and helped create a vibrant atmosphere at the concert.
Eric Nisula, director of the SVSU Choir and Collegium, remarked that he was impressed with both the artistic level required to perform the solemn sounds of gagaku and the unity displayed by the wadaiko drummers.
SVSU students and guests later visited the Main Sanctuary and attended a dinner sponsored by Tenri University that helped deepen the ties with their sister college and students from Tenri Kyoko Gakuen High School.
This year, two representatives delivered appreciation speeches on behalf of the graduating class. One was a former student of Oyasato High School, while the other was a former student of Tenri Seminary High School. The ceremony closed with the singing of “O-uta 7: The Seeds of Single-hearted Devotion.”