Reiko Kato　President, Meguro UNESCO Association

　IT BEGAN WITH A SIMPLE REMARK

“The only way we can cooperate with your UNESCO movement is through music. You can make use of our music if you give us a chance.” said Yoko Urata, when she was having dinner with us at our house together with Joergen Fog, her fiancée.

It was very good timing as the Japan Federation of UNESCO Associations was asking us if we could extend assistance to Bangladeshi people who were then struck by extensive flooding. A charity concert “Bangladesh SOS” featuring a piano, violin, and cello ensemble was immediately envisaged. Handbills were distributed among the members and their friends. The large hall in the Silver House, Komazawa Mitsukoshi Department Store was selected for the site. A piano was carried in from Urata’s residence. Henry Hirose, Mariko Takahashi’s husband, and his brother looked after the recording. The Master of Ceremony was Eigo Kato, my husband. It was the first undertaking of this sort for the Meguro UNESCO Association. Under the leadership of late Michio Harada, our fourth Chairperson, everyone including myself was running around like mad to make the concert a success. None of us knew the president of Mitsukoshi Department Store personally, but in order to save on cost, we wrote him a letter explaining our cause and asked for his favorable consideration for the rental fee. In March 1975, the Meguro UNESCO Association made the first step in the history of its own overseas assistance activities, which now includes UNESCO co-action program, the worldwide TERAKOYA school program, scholarships, protection of the world heritages, aid for a number of diseases, and aid for emergency disasters. The activities, which began with a simple remark by Yoko Urata, have grown to become one of the main pillars of our organization. Accordingly, I am pleased to announce that we are going to hold the 30^th concert under the auspices of Meguro UNESCO Association.

　MESSAGE TO YOUNG MINDS

Meguro Persimmon Hall was opened in September with considerable expectation of the Meguro’s citizens behind it. The inaugural concert was performed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphonic Orchestra under the baton of Takahiro Sonoda as well as Hiroshi Wakasugi, who happens to live in Meguro, with the audience enjoying the rich program.

The site of Meguro Persimmon Hall was once the site of Metropolitan High School, which later became Metropolitan University. When I was a small child, I saw many high school students walking around wearing high-heeled wooden clogs and black mantles, which was the fashion of pre-war high school students.

The second concert was “UNESCO Peace Concert 2002-Vienna Piano Quartet.” Two days after the concert, I received a letter from Mr. Ryosuke Yamada, a resident of Meguro city. The letter reads in part as follows:

“I spent a very pleasant evening yesterday by attending the UNESCO Peace Concert. From my house we have been watching the campus of the old high school for so many long years. Having survived the Second World War, I am

now 90 years old. I felt really happy that I could enjoy the wonderful music in the beautiful hall, remembering the old campus building of the high school.”

The UNESCO Peace Concert is an undertaking for inviting children and young people on whom our future rests and sending them our message. I feel that the time in which people of different ethnicities and of different generations are able to share through music is truly precious.

In the beautiful programs, which our member Mr. Shigeo Katsuoka designed, I wrote the following words dedicated to the young minds:

“If you find someone all by himself or herself, let him or her join your group. If you run across something beautiful, treasure your excitement in your memory. It will grow into a desire to create peace in your mind.”

I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep appreciation to the performers and the many others for their

Footnote to the photographs:

(Above)　Peace Concert by Vienna Piano Quartet

(Below)　During encores at the Peace Concert, chorus groups sang “Invitation to Vienna,” a song written by Masako Machida and music composed and conducted by Yuuki Ando.