When the final chord of the fiery Spanish-flavored "El Camino Real" by U.S. composer Alfred Reed echoed throughout Suntory Hall, it was a great moment for 16-year-old Mayuko Kawai.

"I was thrilled by the audience's stormy applause," she says.

Kawai wasn't in the crowd, though, she was on stage with the Michinoku Wind Orchestra, which comprised 126 students from junior and senior high schools from Miyagi Prefecture. This one-off event was the culmination of a charity effort to help young musicians who were victims of last year's Great East Japan Earthquake.