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Where does Love of Music Come From?
By Mario G. Huacuja

For Professor Yuriko Kuronuma, music has a long history.  In 1923, when an earthquake and fires that followed destroyed the city of Tokyo, her father – still single – remained at home among the flames to tear from his new piano its last chords.  Years later, at the end of the Second World War, Mr. Kuronuma hid a gramophone in a shelter that he had made in his own garden to protect it from the enemy bombs.  The city was destroyed and his house was reduced to ashes, but the music was saved.  After the disaster, though the family had nothing to eat, its members could listen, among the ruins of their home, the chords of Bach, Beethoven, Schubert and other composers.

Yuriko learned since her early ages, to change tragedy into joy.  That is only one of the miracles she achieved with Music.  That is why she is a woman who works tirelessly, stealing time from sleep, in order to broaden the horizons of music in every corner of the world.  Nothing will stop her.  She has taught the violin to the native Mexican children as well as  to those of professionals; she has taken tons of children and young violinists to Japan; she has organized concerts in small villages and great cities; she has performed many times for the Emperors of Japan; she has delighted passengers in cruise ships sailing around the world; she has played in the most prestigious concert halls and in peasants’ homes; she has taught Mexican singers a Japanese opera sung in its original language; she has made dozens of children’s dreams come true, and she has built a bridge of friendship filled with music crossing the Pacific Ocean uniting Mexico and Japan.

In 1980, Yuriko opened a small academy in a corner of Coyoacan, and from that place she has seeded among a small group of Mexican children a love for the violin and the passion for music.  In this breeding ground has flourished excellent concert artists, new teachers and a group of various professionals, whose best friend is their own violin. From there has also come out several Mexican children who have visited Japan and  its cities, have performed in its concert halls, have played the violin before Japanese children, and have met the Emperors. And above all, they have learned that cultural differences, instead of separating individuals, can bring people closer, and that human values have no borders.

Those are the main teachings of Yuriko Kuronuma, a Japanese artist, a Mexican teacher, an Ambassador of Music and a citizen of the whole wide world.

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Academia Yuriko Kuronuma A.C. Violin, viola & violoncello individual lessons.
Presidente Carranza #52-7, Coyoacán. México, D.F. Tel/Fax. (5255) 5554 7750