Hanna Takashi

When did you start playing in the Royal Academic Orchestra?

I started playing with Akademiska kapellet in August 2023, when I moved to Uppsala.

Where are you from and why did you end up in Uppsala?

I’m from Scotland and I moved to Uppsala to study a masters in biophysics. Also I had heard that Sweden was ‘like Scotland but bigger and with more cinnamon buns’ and I liked the sound of that.

Do you have any special function in the orchestra apart from playing?

No – I just play horn and enjoy the fika during the rehearsal break.

What do you study or work with?

I study biophysics. It is great fun and involves activities like: painting patterns with fluorescent e-Coli, imaging self-foraged moss and watching mind-blowing videos of proteins. It is really a great course to study!

What do you do in your spare time?

Apart from playing the horn I like to run, boulder, drink coffee, and of course...learn Swedish.

What is your best memory with the Royal Academic Orchestra?

I really enjoyed the Christmas concert at the end of the last term. There was one piece that contained a mix of Swedish Christmas songs, so I and the other international players were able to learn a bit more about Swedish Christmas music. And of course playing the Polar Express and Harry Potter was very fun too!

How has your practice of music been affected by the pandemic? And how does it look now?

During the pandemic I didn’t play very much because orchestras were not allowed to rehearse as normal. I much prefer being able to play in orchestras and was extremely glad when we were able to make music again.

Which composer, dead or alive, would you like to have dinner with?

Difficult. Probably Mahler, because he writes great music for horn and if we ran out of conversation we could just sing all the great tunes from his symphonies together!

Do you have any unexpected talent?

I’m not sure if this counts as a talent, but I am pretty good at getting on the wrong train. So far in Sweden I have already accidentally ended up in Tierp having meant to board a train to Stockholm. However it turned out Tierp was quite a nice town so it wasn’t such a bad thing in the end!