LiVEJAM students preparing to perform at JAMOUT! on Friday June 3rd
Music school LIVEJAM, tailoring to teenagers who wish to perform in a “rock band” setting is hosting its next recital called “JAMOUT!” on Friday June 3rd. This will be the first time in 6 months it takes place, since the last scheduled JAMOUT! on March 11th, was cancelled due to the Tohoku earthquake. But this JAMOUT is expected to be much bigger than the one planned in March, as LiVEJAM has seen a boost in students in the past few months.
According to Director Ken Takagi, “We are coming from a small base, so we’re not talking about a large number, but what’s interesting is, the pickup has been more notable after the Tohoku quake”. “We’ve doubled our students from around 20 to around 40 in the months of March and April. Immediately after the quake, tsunami and the nuclear reactor failure, probably more than half of our students fled the Tokyo area, and the ones remaining in Tokyo were not allowed to go outside.
We had a few weeks of darkness (literally, with power savings), then students who had evacuated started to return to Tokyo, and from April new inquiries and trial lessons started to increase. Some were from word of mouth, and some from people who had seen our poster advertisements 6 months ago.”
“Honestly speaking, I was puzzled…” says Mr. Takagi. “I mean, who would think about starting music lessons immediately after Japan’s largest disaster in history!?” That’s when he heard about a client of a friend who runs a jewelry business, who’s also seen a substantial pickup in sales in the weeks following the quake. “Then it occurred to me… it may be that the disaster had an impact on people’s mindset. Seeing what happened and what could happen to themselves and their loved ones, people may have come to a subconscious realization about boosting up their daily enrichment.”
“Perhaps this is a movement towards doing things they’ve always wished to, or buy things they’ve always wanted to.”
Deep? Or Heavy? Well, it doesn’t really matter for LiVEJAM. Says Mr. Takagi, “Come check out the good energy we are creating! Summer time is always a great time to start!” www.livejam.co.jp
— LiVEJAM
