Japanese Crown Prince Performing Beethoven

On Sunday, when the Shunyukai Symphony Orchestra performed Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in Tokyo, Crown Prince Naruhito of Japan played the viola. (Article) This has been the sixth time for the prince to perform in the amateur orchestra, of which he is an honorary member. The prince who is known to be passionately fond of music also sometimes plays viola in the orchestra of Gakushuin University, his old school in Tokyo, as he did last December.

But the crown prince is not only playing in public. Music is a very popular evening entertainment with the imperial family: Empress Michiko plays the harp or the piano, Emperor Akihito cello and Prince Naruhito viola. (Initially, Naruhito’s instrument had been the violin, but he later switched to the viola because the violin seemed to be “too much of a leader, too prominent” for the modest prince’s taste.) Friends of the imperial family use to make up the rest. And maybe some day the musical ensemble will receive another “imperial addition”: last year, the crown prince’s only child, Princess Aiko, started to take violin and piano lessons.

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Tagged Crown Prince Naruhito of Japan, Music.