Tomoko has always had an eye on European music, which is not
surprising. The Germans were particularly prominent in the early 20th
century, several of whom resided in Japan and lectured at the Tokyo School of
Music. On their part, some Japanese composers were intrigued by Western art
music, and incorporated those tonalities into their pieces.
Europe has always been part of Tomoko's musical soul. Even before staring school, classical European music was part of early family experience as her mother sang hymns, her father played violin, and they listened to classics on the radio.
As part of her schooling Tomoko remembered the
importance of children’s songs. In the late 19th century, the
Japanese Ministry of Education reformed music
education by developing a music textbook that included Europe and American
hymns and folk songs set to Japanese lyrics. Tomoko and her peers regularly sang these songs, which taught
moral behavior and national pride.
During the war, Japan was largely isolated from the Western
musical world, but the reputation of European music endured. Tomoko remembered
attending a concert of Bohemian pianist Rudolph Serkin the early 1950s; “It was
the most gorgeous feeling in the world.” Tomoko yearned to enter that society.
It wasn’t until 1967, though, that she had that opportunity.
Her first flight to Europe was made possible through support of friends
associated with the Conservatory of San Francisco. Tomoko took a chartered plan
from Oakland to Frankfurt, where she performed and networked with musical
illuminaries. Later that year she participated in the Long-Thibaud
International Piano Competition and Paris, and in the following year she
performed at the Queen Elizabeth International Musical Competition in Brussels.
Even after Tomoko curtailed competing internationally, she
touristed in Europe, taking advantage of the long legacy of music. She visited Beethoven’s
Viennese home, played an antique harpsichord in a Medici house, and perform
Chopin’s Raindrops Prelude in Majorca in the museum dedicated to him.
Tomoko’s personal life also incorporated Europe. In Salzburg
Tomoko married her husband, Desy Handra, who was an Hungarian medical doctor.
And it was in Europe twenty years later that Tomoko helped her daughter
navigate the international competitive skating scene.
Europe has served as a cultural gateway to music for Tomoko,
which she passes onto her students, some of whom are Europeans themselves.
