Traveling around the world with national anthems. Let’s listen, play, and learn the story of each country.

This project aims to deepen interest in and understanding of each country by having an orchestra perform (practice and perform) the national anthems of the Expo participating countries. National anthems contain the culture, circumstances, and history of each country. Not only will the performance of the national anthem, which is not usually performed, allow the audience to feel closer to the country, but lectures on the country are also planned for the rehearsal and performance. They hope to develop content that will give visitors a sense of the country’s culture and characteristics, as well as the content of the Expo’s exhibits.

Project Inauguration

This project was launched with the hope of creating an opportunity for both performers and audience to learn about and become familiar with the countries of the world through their national anthems. They wondered if they could use the Expo as an opportunity to do something with our beloved “orchestra”. However, in the case of classical music, there is a tendency to bias the performance of works that can be performed mainly in Europe and the United States. This led us to the idea of performing “national anthems. They do not often perform or hear the national anthems of other countries, but all countries have their own national anthems, and they hope to build a bridge between Japan and the rest of the world through these anthems, which are familiar to the people of each country and reflect the history and culture of that country.

Project Activities

CATHARAS organizes music projects that are different from regular concerts with team-playing music such as orchestras and brass bands. They have organized a countdown performance to finish at the exact moment of the New Year’s Eve,”Katteni! Silvester Orchestra” and “Live Orchestra Sports Day,” an athletic event for adults in which a live orchestra plays background music. For each event, they call on music lovers from all over Japan to form an orchestra. 2023-2024 will be the first time we will venture out of Japan to Taiwan for a countdown concert. The joint performance with a group of local musicians also deepened international exchange.

Future prospects of the project toward EXPO 2025 Osaka, Kansai

The Expo is a unique opportunity to access information about various countries and regions of the world while in Osaka. As they create opportunities to present the music of “national anthems” to the local community at events, etc., they hope to create opportunities for their fellow instrumentalists and those who happen to hear their performances to learn about the stories of various countries that they may not have known before, and at the same time, to convey their hospitality to visitors to the Expo from all over the world.