A piano that survived Hiroshima commemorates the victims of Nagasaki

"In 2009, the U.S. pianist was welcomed in Tokyo as a rising jazz star: he had just collaborated with Terence Blanchard and reached the final of the Cole Porter Scholarship in Indianapolis. After his tour of Japan, he was supposed to return to the United States, but he didn't. Because if there was one thing Koller was good at, it was improvising. The Tokyo atmosphere seemed so different from what I was used to that I decided to stay."

"Mitsunori Yagawa was not the typical supplier with whom he would haggle over prices before a performance. In his workshop in the Asaminami neighborhood, the renowned Japanese tuner kept seven pianos that had survived the roar of Little Boy the atomic bomb dropped on the city on August 6, 1945. After one of the many conversations we had, in 2021 he offered me the chance to play one of his instruments at the Atomic Bomb Dome."

"This Wednesday, Koller will sit at one of these pianos to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the second atomic bomb that devastated Nagasaki, three days after the hell of Hiroshima. First, we will visit Shiroyama Elementary School, where 1,400 students died, explains the pianist. And in the evening, I will play a program at Brick Hall that includes classical works by pianist Rentaro Taki, old folk songs, Ko Matsushita's hymn For the Smiles of the Earth, and Rest in Peace his personal tribute to"

Jacob Koller, a 45-year-old U.S. pianist living in Kofu, stayed in Japan after 2009 because he valued the audiences' attentive listening and the Tokyo atmosphere. He collaborated with Terence Blanchard, reached the final of the Cole Porter Scholarship, and toured Japan before deciding to remain. He fell in love, had two children, and later connected with tuner Mitsunori Yagawa, who preserved seven pianos that survived the Hiroshima atomic bomb. In 2021 Koller was offered the chance to play one of those instruments at the Atomic Bomb Dome. He will perform to commemorate the Nagasaki anniversary, visit Shiroyama Elementary School, and present a program mixing classical, folk, and original tributes.

Read at english.elpais.com