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Essay “The Sound of the Heart”

June , 2019
My longing 98 years old

There is a pianist who is 98 years old, and still continues to perform actively as a pianist.
Her name is Ms. Mayako Muroi.
She is the person whom I look up to and respect as a kind of a goal as a performer.

I first saw her on television, in which she was introduced as a professional pianist in her 90’s and was so surprised to see her amongst other people such as a swimmer and other working people in their 90’s.
Everyone seemed so lively and fit and I was impressed by their positive way of thinking.
Also, the way they ate lots of amount of meat, so deliciously. “Meat is the answer!”, naturally,
I re-realized the importance of eating meat.
In fact, Ms. Mayako Muroi said, “I love meat” brightly and then after eating up the meat,
started to play the piano in a way that the music was swaying and pouring out from within her, as though if the music was alive. Greatly touched by this, I wrote about her on my column on a newspaper and after a few weeks, Ms. Muroi herself turned up to my concert with flowers in her hand. I was so surprised. How active she is!
She had read everything I wrote on the newspaper.
Afterwards, I called her to thank her for her visit and was again surprised to hear how young her voice sounded on the phone!
I became a fan even more, after hearing her speaking most rhythmically. She has published many books, so I ran to the bookstore and bought them to find out how she managed to think and act in such a way to be a wonderful musician, and I studied and researched about her.
Since then, Mayako-Sensei is so being so friendly to me and we are communicating by writing letters to each other and speaking on the telephone.

This April, Ms. Muroi has become 98 years old.
When I visited her home after a long time, she welcomed me in her cheerful bouncing voice.
In fact, I made a visit with the TV crew of the TV programme “Fukaii Hanashi in 1 minute” of Nippon Television coverage which was on-aired at the end of last month. The TV crew were also surprised to see her appearance and talking which were not like those of a 98 years old person. We talked about various things and while we did so, Ms. Muroi suddenly stood up and went to her piano and played “Fur Elise” for us.
I was so touched that my body felt tense, hearing her graceful sound of the piano, and it was like watching Ms. Muroi’s heart, changing into music.
Pianist, Ms. Mayako Muroi, alive and kicking.
Indeed, Ms. Muroi is still so well and fit. I truly wish that she keeps shining as our star of hope.
And I wish that her music is delivered to as many people as possible, the dynamic music that is born from her petite body.