Tears of Sakura

French composer and conductor Yannick Paget has been living in Japan since 2004. On March 11, 2011, he was in Kyoto, in south central Japan. At that distance, he hardly felt the earthquake. But the magnitude of the disaster quickly became apparent as Japanese TV broadcasts showed horrifying footage of the tsunami sweeping across fields, inundating roads, even washing away complete towns. In the coming days, the death toll mounted over 16,000. Paget expressed his grief for those lost and his hopes for recovery by writing a piece of music for solo violin and orchestra, "Tears of Sakura."

Paget says: "When I started to compose this piece...my head was filled with pictures from the disaster: fields of ruin and desolation. It was supposed to be the beginning of spring, when sakuras (cherry blossoms) are so beautiful in Japan, but winter was still going on. Instead of the white rain of Sakura petals, it started to snow; the trees seemed to be crying."

Performance Today is proud to broadcast the world premiere performance of Tears of Sakura, from a concert Mr. Paget conducted in Osaka. (The violin soloist is Simon Bernardini, a member of the Berlin Philharmonic.)

Listen to the performance

Mr. Paget is donating all royalties from the piece to the Momo-Kaki Orphans Fund, helping children who lost their parents in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami:

Momo-Kaki Orphans Fund

In support of that effort, Yannick Paget has offered to provide complete orchestral scores and parts for free to any ensemble who would like to perform the piece. There is also a version for violin and piano. Parts for that version also available for free by contacting Mr. Paget.

Contact Yannick Paget

The orchestral version is scored 2.2.2.2-4.2.0.0-Tmp+1-Hp-solo VN-str 2.