After he finished speaking, scattered sighs of relief and snickers rose from below.
The fifty-five people who had passed the selection could only smile bitterly and fall silent. Why did passing suddenly not seem like such a great deal?
Himemiya Chihaya had not said that merely to comfort them. He genuinely thought so.
To him, spending several months polishing competition pieces and practicing for an event like this... really felt like a waste of his life.
It was not as though it were some major competition that could determine the course of one's life.
More importantly, he himself had no particular desire for this sort of thing.
"Hmm~ For today's first lesson, let's skip the ensemble rehearsal for now."
Once Ogasawara Haruka had distributed the thick stack of sheet music to everyone through the section leaders, he announced the focus of the day's first session:
"Please take out the new score and place it beside the old one. I'll explain in detail the differences in every measure, the changes to the instruments being played, and why I rearranged it this way..."
"First, the opening measure—the part meant to seize the audience's attention. Logically speaking, this is the essence of the entire piece..."
"..."
To prevent them from falling behind while taking notes and failing to properly comprehend his profound ideas, this introductory explanation took a full two hours!
There was only one break in the middle, enough time for them to use the restroom.
By the time the briefing ended, so had the day's ensemble practice. The remaining time was only enough for them to briefly familiarize themselves with the music.
Once the time was up, they could all head home.
As for him, following his previous agreement with Kōsaka Reina, the two of them went up to the