On Februari 18th, 2001, the new composition Dejima Suite has been performed at Dejima Hall in Nagasaki. With this premiere concert also the new CD Dejima Suite has been presented. Wil Offermans made Dejima Suite as a present for Nagasaki prefecture and it's people and to join the 400 years Holland-Japan celebration. On Februari 23rd 2001, together with Junko Ueda, Offermans has presented the CD to mr. Kaneko, the governor of Nagasaki prefecture.

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The word of 'Dejima' has a symbolic meaning of exchanges among various cultures. And in the cultural exchanges, there have been always existences of 'voices'. When we visit the remains of Dejima Island in Nagasaki city, Japan, closing the eyes and listening carefully to the imagining sounds, we feel that the piling of various aspects of voices from the past revives. We can imagine that the voices of pleasure, voices of fear, voices of talking about love, voices of lonely murmuring and voices of surprise of unknown experience are appearing beyond the time and space. There have been always human voices, even while the times and landscapes are changing. 'Dejima Suite' is composed with the sound of 'Voices' of modern people, appearing together with western flutes, Japanese satsuma-biwa and modern synthesizer.

Voices of Nagasaki

On the 9th of July, 2000, at Nagasaki NBC Hall, the Voice Workshop by Wil Offermas has been held. In this workshop, there were about 40 participators from all over Nagasaki prefecture and they experienced various possibilities of voice expressions in group. We called this voice workshop group 'Voices of Nagasaki'. 'Voices of Nagasaki' participated in the recording of Dejima Suite.

Premier Concert program

• Tsuru-no-Sugomori (Wil Offermans /flute solo)
• Dan-no-Ura (Junko Ueda /satsuma-biwa & song solo)
• Aka-Tombo (Wil Offermans /flute & synthesizer)
• Kôjô-no-Tsuki (Wil Offermans /flute & synthesizer)

Dejima Suite world premiere (Wil Offermans /flute & synthesizer; Junko Ueda /satsuma-biwa & voice; Kakuko Ono (Nagasaki-shi) /koto; Nozomi Matsuo (Sasebo-shi) /cello; Hôdô Matsuo (Nagasaki Kôfuku-ji temple) /shômyô; Voices of Nagasaki ad hoc voice group of Nagasaki citizens)

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