'Senility Amazing! Celebrating Aging and Beethoven"

We live in a super-aging society today. Some people may be concerned that they will lose who they have become as a result of physical decline, memory loss, and other "old age" issues. For example, dementia, which is often viewed negatively in today's society, is said to affect many people who lose their sense of time and space.

Takao Murase of Yoriai Home for the Aged, a nursing home that has garnered nationwide attention for its progressive care that attends to the wishes of each individual, has proposed the term "geriatric aging" with the meaning of positively recapturing the serious and funny appearance of elderly people living in the world of aging as something rich. It also means to live again in the "world free from concepts," which we all experienced in our childhood. Especially in the fields of art and music, expression free from everyday concepts and sensations has been highly valued.

In the first session of this project, we aim to renew the existing concept of "aging" through guest lectures with humorous examples of nursing care and dialogues among participants to explore the different ways of perceiving the world as it comes into view through "aging.

In the second session, we will explore what kind of musical situation the composer Beethoven reached in his later years, and the charm of his works through live string quartet performance by Quartet Excelsior and guest talks, exploring the rich and free image of human beings that "aging" brings.



Quartet Excelsior
　Yuka Nishino (Vn.1), Haruna Kitami (Vn.2), Yukiko Yoshida (Va), Hajime Otomo (Vc)
Formed in 1994. It is a rare permanent string quartet in Japan that performs more than 60 concerts a year. The quartet is at the forefront of Japanese string quartets in terms of both ability and prestige, and leads the chamber music scene. The quartet is the first Japanese group to complete a complete recording of Beethoven's string quartets in Japan, and has received high acclaim. He has received numerous awards, including the highest prize at the 5th Paolo Borciani International String Quartet Competition, the 19th Nippon Steel Music Award "Fresh Artist Prize," and the 16th Hotel Okura Music Award.

Takao Murase
General manager of Yoriai Home for the Aged (Fukuoka City) and other facilities. His practice of "care that follows the wishes of the elderly" without a timetable has attracted a lot of attention, including a close-up program on NHK, and his humor-filled talks have excited lectures in many places. Her main publications include "Synchronization and Freedom" (Igaku Shoin), "Bokakeru yo yo" (Nishinippon Shinbunsha), "Zensho shinpan oba-chan ga boketa. (Shinyosha) and others.