天美影视

On Saturday, June 15, 2024, at Aoyama Gakuin Auditorium, Josef Laska's "Aoyama Gakuin March No. 1" and "Aoyama Gakuin March No. 2" were revived and given their world premiere by Aoyama Gakuin Orchestra, approximately 90 years after their initial performance.

Composer Joseph Laska (February 13, 1886 – November 14, 1964) was an Austrian composer and conductor who lived in Japan from 1923 to 1935. During that time, he taught at the Takarazuka Music and Opera School and Kobe College, founded and conducted the Takarazuka Symphony Orchestra, and composed numerous works.
This march was completely unknown until now, but an autograph score (piano score) was discovered in the library of the Linz Bruckner Conservatory (now Anton Bruckner Private University) by Professor Emeritus Kazumi Negishi (Osaka University), and the premiere of the orchestral version was realized as part of Aoyama 150th anniversary celebration.

The circumstances surrounding how Laska, whose base of operations was in the Kansai region, ended up composing two marches for Aoyama remain unknown and a mystery. We hope that the release of these songs will gather more information and shed light on the background leading to their composition.

You can watch the performance by Aoyama Gakuin Orchestra on the following official YouTube channel.