At Sakuyo Music University in the Music Education faculty, from the third year onwards I chose piano as major. I also received voice lessons, which were no longer private but rather group lessons and compulsory. In the third year our teacher was Mr. Masato Nishida and the subject was Japanese songs. In the fourth year our teacher was Mrs. Yukie Maeda and the subject was German songs (Lieder) such as the whole Zyklus of “Frauenliebe und -leben” by Robert Schumann. That was very educational and later as a singer this experience very much benefitted me.
At the beginning of the third year in the first lesson with Mr. Nishida, he told me he was very surprised that I had not chosen voice as a major, which he found disappointing because in his opinion I had a beatiful voice. Many years later I found out that at the exams at the end of the second year I had received the highest mark. I gathered all my courage and during the next lesson I spoke to Mr. Nishida privately and told him that I wanted to study voice intensively. After that I was allowed to receive his private lessons and that was the first time I could study opera arias (such as Mimi from La Bohème) and songs by Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, etc. and also some German Lieder as well as some oratorio arias. This repertory remains to this day my own and I think that he gave me a correct task which I should strive to perfect throughout my whole life. Mr. Nishida is an alumnus of Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku (Tokyo University of the Arts), where he also received his Daigakuin (postgraduate degree). Back then I was of course a total beginner who maybe did not understand everything completely but I tried to do my best but as my studies progressed I truly understood that he had received a very high education. I heard that his father had also been a professor and very strict in terms of education. Mr. Nishida began studiying the piano but he passed the entry exams for voice. In this sense I feel that I am a bit similar to him, which I find an interesting coincidence.
作陽音楽大学教育音楽学部で、私は３年生よりピアノを主科に選択しました。声楽は、個人レッスンではなくなり、グループレッスンが義務付けられていました。３年生では仁志田正人先生の日本歌曲、４年生では前田雪江先生のドイツ歌曲（シューマンの連作歌曲「女の愛と生涯」全曲など）でした。とても良い勉強になったと思いますし、後に声楽家を目指すようになってから、この経験が非常に役にたちました。
３年生の初めてのレッスンで、仁志田先生は私に、歌に変わるかと思っていた、綺麗な声なのに残念だ、とおっしゃいました。ずっと後になって知ったのですが、２年生最後の声楽のテストでは私が一番成績が良かったのだそうです。 私は勇気を奮い起こして、次の授業の時、個人的に仁志田先生に、歌の勉強がしたいと相談しました。それにより、仁志田先生に個人レッスンもしていただくようになりました。私にとって初めてのオペラのアリア（プッチーニの「ラ ボエーム」のミミ）はじめ、ベッリーニ、ドニゼッティ、ヴェルディその他の歌曲やオペラアリア、ドイツ歌曲やオラトリオのアリアも少し、みていただきました。これらの曲は私に合っていて、生涯、勉強して深める自分のレパートリーの一部となりました。 仁志田先生は、東京藝術大学と同大学の大学院を卒業されていらっしゃいます。当時、私は全くの初心者で、与えられた曲をわけも分からず必死でこなそうと試みるだけでしたが、後になって自分の勉強が深まるにつれ徐々に、先生の高い教養が理解できるようになってきたように思います。 先生のお父様は教授でいらっしゃって、非常に教育に厳しかった、と伺いました。また、先生は始めはピアニストを目指されていて、後に声楽に転向され、大学受験をなさったそうです。私も少し似たような部分があり、不思議な気がします。
Photo by Yuka Simeno, 2018 Vienna
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