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Three Days of Musical Dreams Gunma Symphony Orchestra Ensemble × Mayumi Sawada (Piano) × Hara Museum ARC *Museum Admission Free to Students of High School Age or Below!

Date(s) : Saturday, October 11, Sunday, October 12, Monday, October 13 (national holiday)

Time : Please see below.

This fall, Hara Museum ARC will be hosting a series of daily concerts as related events to the ongoing Träumerei exhibition, featuring music that connect with the exhibition’s theme and works on display. The concert features the Gunma Symphony Orchestra Ensemble, which marks its 80th anniversary this year, and the widely renowned pianist Mayumi Sawada. Enjoy a dreamlike interlude in which classical music and contemporary art resonate with each other. Includes performances by a woodwind quintet and string quartet, and a piano solo performance of Schumann’s masterpiece Träumerei. To promote the casual enjoyment of the concerts, admission to the museum will be free for elementary, junior high and high school students on the days of this event.

♪ Free Mini Concerts ♪

Saturday, October 11, Sunday, October 12, Monday, October 13 (national holiday)
Venue: Outdoor stage at Hara Museum ARC
Participation Fee: Free (museum admission not included)

Saturday, October 11
[1] 13:00 – 13:30 Piano
[2] 14:00 – 14:30 Gunma Symphony Orchestra Ensemble (Woodwind Quintet)
[3] 15:00 – 15:30 Piano
Performer(s)
[1][3] Mayumi Sawada (piano)
[2] Gunma Symphony Orchestra Ensemble: Hideki Nakajo (principal flute)/ Tomohisa Takasaki (principal oboe)/ Tomoya Nishikawa (principal clarinet) / Kazumi Naba (principal bassoon)/ Junji Takemura (principal horn)
Program
[1][3] Schumann Kinderszenen, Liszt Liebestraume, Debussy Clair de Lune and others
[2] Mozart The Magic Flute, Humperdinck Evening Prayer from Hansel and Gretel, Ravel Le Tombeau de Couperin

Sunday, October 12
[1] 13:00 – 13:30 Piano
[2] 14:00 – 14:30 Gunma Symphony Orchestra Ensemble (String Quartet)
[3] 15:00 – 15:30 Piano
Performer(s)
[1][3] Mayumi Sawada (piano)
[2] Gunma Symphony Orchestra Ensemble: Shunichiro Fukuda (concertmaster) / Nanami Shiokai (violin) Rena Ota (viola) / Nanako Ban (cello)
Program
[1][3] Schumann Kinderszenen, Liszt Liebestraume, Debussy Clair de Lune and others
[2] Mozart Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Kenji Miyazawa The Song of the Circling Stars, Leigh Harline When You Wish Upon a Star and others

Monday, October 13
[1] 11:00 – 11:30 Piano
[2] 13:00 – 13:30 Piano
Performer
[1][2] Mayumi Sawada (piano)
Program
[1] Schumann Kinderszenen, Liszt Liebestraume
[2] Mozart Piano Sonata No. 1, Richard Strauss Träumerei, Debussy Clair de Lune

♬ Secret Concert ♬

Date and Time: Saturday, October 11 and Sunday, October 12, 2025 Door opens 16:00 / Start 16:30 / End 17:30
Capacity: 30 per session (limited to those junior high school age and above)
Venue: Somewhere at Hara Museum ARC (participants will be told directly)
Fee (museum admission not included): ¥2,000; ¥1,000 for Hara Museum ARC members and up to one accompanying person (but only for the member in case of the Friends/Single category) and regular members of the Gunma Symphony Orchestra.
*Please note that museum admission for elementary, junior high and high school students will be free on the days of this event.
*Fee includes a commemorative gift.
*Please pay fee in cash on the day of the concert.

Saturday, October 11
Performer(s)
Gunma Symphony Orchestra Ensemble (Woodwind Quintet): Hideki Nakajo (principal flute)/ Tomohisa Takasaki (principal oboe)/ Tomoya Nishikawa (principal clarinet) / Kazumi Naba (principal bassoon)/ Junji Takemura (principal horn)
Program
Debussy Rêverie, Childrens’ Corner, Béla Bartók No. 97 Nocturne from Microcosmos, Toshio Hosokawa Fragment III, Darius Milhaud King René’s Fireplace

Sunday, October 12
Performer(s)
Gunma Symphony Orchestra Ensemble (String Quartet): Shunichiro Fukuda (concertmaster) / Nanami Shiokai (violin) / Rena Ota (viola) / Nanako Ban (cello)
Program
Schumann Kinderszenen (including Träumerei), Respighi Ancient Airs and Dances for the Lute, Suite No. 3, Italiana, Dvorak String Quartet No. 12 “America” Op. 96 and others

*Performers and program are subject to change due to unavoidable circumstances.

Making a Reservation (reservations are required only for the Secret Concert)
Application period: From 10:00 on Tuesday, September 23 (national holiday) to 18:00 on Tuesday, September 30.
*Please use a dedicated Google Form.
https://forms.gle/AAqvzAUySktkmAyi7
*Should the number of applicants exceed the capacity, a lottery will be held.
*Applicants will be notified of the results on Friday, October 3.

INFORMATION
Title: Three Days of Musical Dreams: Gunma Symphony Orchestra Ensemble × Mayumi Sawada (Piano) × Hara Museum ARC
Dates: Saturday, October 11, Sunday, October 12, Monday, October 13 (national holiday), 2025
Venue: Hara Museum ARC 2855-1 Kanai, Shibukawa City, Gunma Prefecture 377-0027
Organizers: Gunma Prefecture, Arc-en-Ciel Art Foundation, Hara Museum ARC
Sponsored by: Gunma Prefectural Board of Education, Shibukawa City Board of Education
Planning Cooperation: Gunma Symphony Orchestra
Cooperation: Nippon Piano Holdings Co., Ltd., Piano Plaza Gunma

Performer(s)
October 11 (Sat.) Gunma Symphony Orchestra Ensemble/Woodwind Quintet
From left: Hideki Nakajo (principal flute), Tomohisa Takasaki (principal oboe), Tomoya Nishikawa (principal clarinet), Kazumi Naba (principal fagotto), Junji Takemura (principal horn)

October 12 (Sun) Gunma Symphony Orchestra Ensemble/String Quartet
From left: Shunichiro Fukuda (concertmaster), Nanami Shiokai (violin), Rena Ota (viola), Nanako Ban (cello)

October 11 (Sat) – 13 (Mon,/national holiday) Solo piano
Mayumi Sawada (piano)

Concurrent Exhibition
Träumerei (ends on Monday, January 12, 2026 (national holiday)
This exhibition introduces selected works from the museum’s collections of contemporary and traditional East Asian art, focusing on the themes of “dreams” and “dreaming,” phenomena familiar to all of us, but made mysterious by the variety of their manifestations. We invite you to experience the dreams (träumerei) that are invoked by the artists, artworks, curators and you the viewer within the confines of the museum.
Featured Artists: Anselm Kiefer, Yayoi Kusama, Yoshitomo Nara, Jonathan Borofsky, Yasumasa Morimura, Tadanori Yokoo, Mark Rothko, Kano School, Okyo Maruyama, and others.

Gunma Symphony Orchestra
Founded in November 1945 in an area devastated by war, Gunma Symphony Orchestra was Japan’s first regional orchestra, founded under the slogan “Reconstruction through Music.” Since then, it has been cherished by the Gunma citizens who affectionately refer to it by the nickname “Gunkyo.” Marking its 80th anniversary this year, the orchestra continues to engage in a wide range of musical activities, including regular concerts and traveling music classes, enjoying its status as a cultural symbol of Gunma prefecture. The orchestra recently relocated to the Takasaki Arts Theatre (open since September 2019) where it seeks to further advance and improve its performance activities under the leadership of principal conductor Norichika Iimori, who assumed this position in April 2023. https://www.gunkyo.com/

Mayumi Sawada
Born in Takasaki City, Sawada studied piano and composition from a young age. At the age of 15, she performed to rave reviews her own concerto with the Gunma Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Toshiaki Umeda. After graduating from Tokyo University of the Arts, she traveled to Europe under the Gunma Prefecture Emerging Artists Overseas Program. She studied under James Tocco in Germany. After graduating from the University of Music in Lübeck, she performed at music festivals throughout Europe before returning to Japan where she received a graduate degree from the Tokyo University of the Arts. The events she has organized include Concert Series: Performances, Exhibitions, and Lectures (2001-2006) and A Musical Walk with Debussy (2013-2018) in Takasaki. She received the Jomo Arts and Culture Award. Following the Enren Concert sponsored by the Japan Federation of Musicians, she is presently engaged in her My Favorites recital series in Tokyo. She is presently a professor in the Department of Community and Child Studies at Niijima Gakuen Junior College where she is striving to nurture the next generation of artists. https://sawadamayumi.com

Hara Museum ARC
Hara Museum ARC, which originally opened in 1988 in Shibukawa, Gunma as the annex to the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Shinagawa, Tokyo, became the sole venue when the two museums merged in 2021. Its expansive highland grounds allow visitors to experience art within a lush environment against a backdrop of blue skies. The museum is home to two major collections: The Hara Museum Collection of contemporary art, amassed by Toshio Hara, chairman of the Arc-en-Ciel Art Foundation, the museum’s parent organization, encompasses painting and sculptural works dating from the 1950s onward, spanning from the masters of such 20th century art movements as Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art to artists active in the art scene of today. The Hara Rokuro Collection, on the other hand, is a collection of early modern Japanese paintings, crafts, and Chinese art collected by Meiji-era businessman Rokuro Hara (1842-1933) which has its own special exhibition space called the Kankai Pavilion.

Directions
By bus: From JR Shibukawa Station, take the Kan’etsu Kotsu bus bound for Ikaho Hot Spring or Ikaho Harunaguchi for approximately 15 minutes, getting off at Green Bokujo-mae. From there, the museum is a 7-minute walk away.
By car: The museum is 15 minutes (8 km) from the Shibukawa-Ikaho Interchange on the Kan’etsu Expressway. By taxi, it is 10 minutes from Shibukawa Station or 10 minutes from Ikaho Hot Spring. (Free parking is available for up to 46 cars and 2 buses.)