Performers in Vienna on Saturday play stringed instruments made from debris from the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. | KYODO

National

Quartet performs in Vienna with violins crafted from 3/11 tsunami debris

Kyodo

VIENNA – A string quartet performed at Minoriten Church in Vienna on Saturday with instruments made from debris from the March 2011 quake and tsunami that devastated parts of the Tohoku region.

The ensemble of musicians, from Japan and Austria, played works by Mozart and other composers as part of the Tsunami Violin Project, which aims at having 1,000 artists from around the world play the instruments.

Around 600 people, including Crown Prince Naruhito as well as the renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Ivry Gitlis, have so far performed with the instruments, which were crafted from driftwood and the beams of homes, since the project was launched in 2012.

One of the violins uses part of the famed “miracle pine” in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture.

LATEST NATIONAL STORIES

People pass by the Hotel du Palais where Group of Seven delegates will be hosted in Biarritz, southwestern France, ahead of the annual G7 summit from Saturday through Monday.

Japan and G7 peers brace for fractious summit in France: Leaders from the Group of Seven democracies will gather in the seaside resort town of Biarritz, France, beginning Saturday for what is expected to be a fractured, contentious summit due to funda...

South Korean police officers stand next to a banner during a rally demanding the South Korean government to abolish the General Security of Military Information Agreement, or GSOMIA, an intelligence-sharing agreement between South Korea and Japan, in front of Japanese embassy in Seoul, on Thursday.

Seoul to end key intel pact with Tokyo: In a stunning move that could further upend already fraying ties between Japan and South Korea, Seoul on Thursday announced that it would scrap a key intelligence-sharing pact with Tokyo, with t...

A poster advertising the 1964 Tokyo Paralympics is displayed at an exhibit at the Japanese Red Cross Society in August.

Pioneering Japanese interpreting team opened nation's eyes to disabled athletes at '64 Paralympics: Foreign residents and wheelchairs — much less Paralympic athletes — were a rare sight in Japan in 1964. Preparations to host the Summer Olympics and the second-ever Paralympics were well underwa...