Pete Cooper, Osaka ピーットクーパー大坂

Just got back from Pete Cooper's concert in Yotsubashi, Osaka. It was brilliant and the audience were very appreciative (all Japanese except for me and an American man who had heard about the concert from internet radio). I guess maybe 30-40 or so people came - many of them from among the 18 participants of the previous day's workshop.
Pete is a well known London fiddler and teacher. He plays in a wide variety of styles and travels widely too. He has already played in China and it was great to see Pete in Japan for the first time.
He started off each set with solo fiddle and fiddle-singing (incl. the Lake of Ponchartraine, and some American bluegrass songs) and then was joined by Tamiko-san of Tokyo Fiddle Club (the concert organiser) and Omori-san on guitar or fiddle (who played Irish, Swedish and Russian tunes fantastically).
Pete had a noticeably thoughtful approach to his non-English speaking audience: He had found out some Japanese phrases - Good evening (konbanwa), thankyou (domo arigatou/maido), the numbers to count the players in, and cheers (kampai), which went down well, and in his English chat he slowed down just a tiny bit, sometime repeating things in different words so that everyone could get his succinct explanations and jokes. Lots of people had their photos taken with him afterwards, I think because they had appreciated him so much as a person as well as as a musician.
Tonight's three fiddlers had also been to Kyoto yesterday to play under the cherry blossom now in full bloom at Yasaka Shrine in Maruyama Park (Shijo Higashioji).
Good luck in Tokyo tomorrow Pete. I hope you will come back here every year - I think you might have made a few new friends here.