On Saturday 24 October 2026, the Teachers’ Community of KHANA Japan will host a day of workshop, group lessons and ensemble playing in Tokyo, followed by individual lessons on Sunday 25 October and Saturday 31 October.
Teaching will be led by Chisumi Ishikawa, Representative of KHANA in Japan, together with four teachers of the Teachers’ Community: Yukari Fujima, Kaoru Furusawa, Tomoe Kamikura and Chie Asano.
The programme
The morning belongs to Chisumi Ishikawa: a workshop on the fundamentals of the New Approach, with demonstration. Participants bring their instruments and work along. Fifteen of them will play in front of everyone and share in the teaching. Twenty-five asked to do so, and the clock allowed only fifteen.
After a light lunch and an unhurried social hour, the afternoon moves into booth-style group lessons. The four teachers each take a station devoted to one aspect of the New Approach: the three fundamental exercises, the lower half of the bow, the upper half and the whole bow, the left hand and the fourth finger. Small groups rotate between them, so that every participant is taught directly by more than one teacher.
The day closes with everyone playing together. For a number of the participants, it will be the first ensemble experience of their lives, and for most of them it will be the first ensemble led in the New Approach.
Individual lessons
Eighteen individual lesson slots have been prepared: some on the day after the workshop, the rest on the weekend a week later. These are one-to-one sessions given to the particular difficulty each player brings — the shoulder that will not let go, the bow that will not travel, the fourth finger that will not reach.
More applicants than places
Sixty-two people applied. To protect both the capacity of the hall and the quality of the teaching, the Teachers’ Community held the workshop to thirty places and the individual lessons to eighteen, and both filled. Those who could not be given a place were contacted personally. Turning them away was the hardest part of the preparation, and it is the clearest sign we have of how much appetite there is in Japan for this work.
In their own words
Applicants were invited to write freely about what they hoped for. Translated and anonymised, otherwise unchanged.
— “I have been playing for more than thirty years. For the first twenty I was told to press hard and play hard, until my bow shook and I could barely play at all. Then I spent ten years learning to release. I still injured my little finger with a forced vibrato. I want my violin to sing.”
— “I am applying on behalf of my daughter, aged thirteen. She has played since she was three. Within ten minutes of practice she says her neck hurts, her shoulder hurts. I cannot help feeling that she is playing with her whole body under strain.”
— “I found Chisumi Ishikawa on YouTube and have been practising alone from her videos ever since. I want to experience the New Approach in the flesh.”
— “My teacher tells me my right wrist is locked and my bowing is stick-like, but offers no way out of it, and I am at a loss. I want to play with a beautiful sound that has a core to it.”
— “If I am selected and someone who has never once experienced this approach in person is turned away, please give my place to them. I hope the New Approach reaches as many people as possible.”
These are the difficulties the day is for. We hope to bring the light of the New Approach to every one of them.