Wind Journey (Reduced instrumentation)

Commissioned by Kiryu High School Wind Orchestra in 2011.
It is based on the school's alumnus, Tomihiro Hoshino's painted art collection book "Wind Journey." It depicts Wind=music and Journey=journey to various keys. I emphasized the harmony of color and resonance, and melodic line supported harmony. With respect to the artist and his style, the music is subtle and calming yet strong and resilient. In this smaller instrumentation, I revised the harmony, voices and composition, and it can be challenging enough for school bands.

(Hirokazu Fukushima)

About Tomihiro Hoshino
Tomihiro Hoshino was an experienced 24-year-old gymnastics teacher with a real passion for the sport. An active mountain climber and gymnastics instructor, his life changed completely as he was demonstrating a double somersault technique to a group of junior high school students. Hoshino unfortunately injured his neck during the maneuver and since that day he has been completely paralyzed from the neck down.
Inspired by gifts of flowers and poems, he was moved to start expressing what they meant to him. He began to gradually draw flowers and eventually became an adept painter with his mouth. He had created enough artwork to actually produce a gallery sized exhibition and also held many more exhibitions in New York and Los Angeles. Tomihiro Hoshino has successfully produced hundreds of pieces of artwork, many of his essays and poems have been published and his work is displayed in permanent exhibitions at the Tomihiro Hoshino Museum.