LPOA | Interview with Aya Kitaoka

What was the academy for you?

This academy was a complete experience. You get to share a flat together with six other musicians. You also get to play in the professional orchestra, you get coaching sessions from soloists and mental coaches and workshops with many different subjects. You also get to play many chamber music concerts with your fellow academic students. Overall you really share lots of time together, intense time with other musicians, so you really learn how to communicate and it's really a meaningful experience to learn, I think, when you are still young and it will be useful for sure.

Three words that best describe the experience…

Intense. Life lasting memories, friendships. Bridge between student and professional life.

Favourite concert & memory?

The first chamber music concert that we did with the other academy members in the end of January 2022 . It was very nice, because we all had to prepare quite a lot. It was in the Salle de Musique de Chambre of the Philharmonie, so it was quite a nice concert. After the concert, there was a really nice party too. Also the Mahler 6 concerts we did with our chief conductor Gustavo Gimeno. I was just next to the contrabass players and it gave me so much energy. It was really a nice experience.

Most valuable lesson?

Obviously to play in the orchestra, how to play your role in the section and to really play with everyone around and always listening while you are playing. We also did quite a lot of chamber music in the academy, which was also a really nice learning experience too.

What will you take from the academy to your new orchestra?

I would say I'm still in the learning process, so I will take everything that I learned here about how to play in the orchestra, like musicality, technique, and how to listen.

What will you miss the most from the academy?

Well first of all the people, like the people that I met in Luxembourg and the orchestra musicians and also my dear academy friends. I'm going to live alone in my apartment and I think I will miss the noise in the house. It was really like, you know, being at home with your family.

What about Luxembourg?

It's mixed between German and French culture, so I would say it's quite original. Also the language, I don't speak Luxembourgish, but I really hear the characteristics of those two languages. It's a really original country that I would say you would never find the same anywhere else in the world.