“I grew up in Australia. When I was 16 years old, my parents went back to Japan, while I stayed in Sydney. My father would regularly send me videos with television recordings of the Berliner Philharmoniker concerts in Japan. I was especially impressed by the recording of Mahler’s Third Symphony under Claudio Abbado with Toru Yasunaga as concertmaster. His playing was wonderful, and I decided that one day I would get to know him and the orchestra. ”