The films of the renowned Studio Ghibli, founded by Hayao Miyazaki, are orphaned if they are separated from the music that accompanies them. In 2008, in the Budokan stadium in Tokyo, in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Japanese animation studio, a historic concert was held by Joe Hisaishi, the composer of the soundtracks of cinematographic pieces such as My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away.
One hundred musicians, mostly Chilean, who participate in the ensemble band Kokorone Music They are looking to replicate that interpretation this Saturday, July 27, at the Teletón theater in Santiago de Chile, with the symphonic concert ‘Tribute to Budokan’.
A few days before the screening, the group welcomes EL PAÍS to a rehearsal room in the center of the Chilean capital. In the hallway conversations, it is clear that something is different. Three opera singers are vocalizing a strange sound, like a scream, but softer. A while later, they repeat it while practicing one of the songs from the film. The boy and the heron. EThese particular voices allude to the singing of birds, and they sound exactly like that.
‘Homage to Budokan’ takes us through ten films by Studio Gibhli in a concert lasting two hours and fifteen minutes. The band brings together 100 people: 40 lyrical singers, three soloists – among them a nine-year-old girl – and the remaining 57 are musicians from the orchestra, tamers of string, wind and percussion instruments. The work also has a narrator, a teacher and a Japanese translator, who links the different pieces together.
The work began to take shape in August 2023 by the hand of Valeria Severino, founder of Kokorone Music and lyrical singer. With an eye on the rehearsal, he explains that it will be something unique in Chile and Latin America: “We replicated the original concert, we tried to make all the music that was made in that anniversary concert and we added the film The boy and the heron, “The first work was released last year. We make arrangements that are as close as possible to the original work, we extract the essence of the music and transfer it to this 100-person orchestra. So, nothing is lost.”
Kokorone Music The band started in 2020 and specialized in the soundtracks of Studio Ghibli films. Severino explains that from the beginning they have had a loyal audience: “As an ensemble we have a very captive audience, who go to all our concerts (…) When we started we didn’t know that there were so many fans of Studio Ghibli music, who were aware of the soundtrack, that was incredible.” About this group of people who follow them, the opera singer comments: “It has something special, that has to do with childhood, with innocence, with what makes you feel represented with the stories of these films.”
Valeria Severino stresses that there is no foundation, company or public resources behind this work. Funding is through tickets, “we only trust in our audience,” she says. The Teletón theater has a capacity of 1,200 people and for ‘Tribute to Budokan’ they have already sold out more than a thousand tickets.
The director of the work, Christian Lorca, who is the current principal conductor of the Metropolitan Student Symphony Orchestra and assistant director of the Municipal Theater of Santiago, says about this interpretation: “It has been beautiful to conduct this music, which is very entertaining for everyone. It is also very complex, full of many dramatic changes, which is precisely what makes the music a very important phenomenon in films. If there were no music, the films would not be what we remember.”
Lorca says that this concert opens doors to music in other environments: “It is a nice opportunity to introduce another repertoire within Santiago de Chile (…) It is different from what is normally heard because we have a lot of academic music and this brings us closer to another public, which is not necessarily the one that goes to the Municipal Theater or the Symphony. It is inviting people to discover a very interesting world,” he comments.
Valeria Severino hopes that this concert can be replicated later this year, but it is a project that is still in discussion.
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