Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series on famed German violinist Kolja Blacher’s educational method shown through his interactions with Japanese children at a music event in Tokyo.

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World-renowned violinist Kolja Blacher held a “Talk and Concert” for children learning musical instruments in Japan in November 2023.

A precocious musician who went to the United States to study at the age of 15, Blacher talked about the German style of music education.

The event, held in November 2023 at the Hamarikyu Asahi Hall in Tokyo’s Tsukiji district, attracted about 400 people, mainly parents and children of high school age or younger.
Some children, hoping to become professional musicians, brought along their own instruments.

Blacher performed Bruch’s “Violin Concerto No. 1” with piano accompaniment as the first piece.

When he asked the children if they had ever played the piece, which requires a high level of technique, about 20 of them raised their hands.

“Oh my God, then I have to play it very well,” Blacher said.

Born to a composer father and a pianist mother, Blacher began playing the violin at the age of 4.

Like top athletes, instrumentalists often have a conscious desire to become professionals in their teenage years.

“I was not a prodigy. I had to work hard, and I had to learn the technique and everything,” Blacher said. “And by the age of 9, I knew I wanted to be a violinist but had no idea on what kind of form or circumstance that would be.”

When he became a professional, he realized he was lonely.

“Everyone wants to perform as a soloist, and even if you succeed as a soloist, you will spend a lot of your life alone in a hotel or on a plane. If you’re not careful, you may not feel like you’re living a happy life,” he said.

Blacher continued: “I think that it’s a good idea to have a home in an orchestra or in a school to play together with others. And if one is not careful, one can be very successful as a soloist and very unhappy.”

For six years from 1993, Blacher served as the first concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

He now balances his performance activities with his teaching job at a music college, and also cherishes time with his family.

During the Q&A session with audience members, a student asked Blacher how to avoid getting nervous when performing in front of people.

“When I was 14 years old, like you, I was also quite nervous,” he replied. “But one day I realized if you make a mistake, you won’t be killed. In an audience of 3,000 people, only about 300 notice the mistake. If you make a mistake in football, we all know.”

When asked how much time he spent practicing as a child, he said in a low voice, “You shouldn’t practice too much (laughs). It’s not the quantity that matters, it’s the quality.”

He said that when he was a teenager, he practiced violin for about an hour and a half a day but preferred to play soccer.

“It’s better to practice when you are fresh. Take enough breaks. Meet up with friends in your free time and work out. If you don’t have free time, you won’t be able to practice well,” he said.

“This is a message to parents (laughs). If you don’t see the point of practicing, don’t practice. Practice slowly and with your head, not just your fingers.”

Rei Saito, 10, from Yokohama, who was listening at the venue, started practicing music at the age of 3.

“It helped that practice is not about quantity, it’s about quality, and it’s important to take breaks,” she said.

Her mother laughed: “That’s where I got caught with a hard stare from her.”

Blacher’s second piece, Alban Berg’s “Concerto,” is about the death of a girl with whom the composer was close.

Blacher was asked how, through a performance, he could express the “story” of a girl who becomes seriously ill and travels to heaven.

He said he was exposed to a variety of cultures other than music. “I like to read books, go to exhibitions, draw pictures, go to the movies.”

Japanese violinists have a reputation for having high technical skills. But music can’t be expressed by technique alone. In their desire to develop children’s talents, parents tend to want to immerse their children in practice.

The next part in this series will examine the differences between music education in Japan and Germany.

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Born in Berlin in 1963, Kolja Blacher became a violinist and professor at the School of Music Hanns Eisler Berlin in Germany. He studied at the Juilliard School in the United States and Salzburg in Austria. After working as the first concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, he has been active as a soloist. His father is the late Boris Blacher, a famed composer.