Naoto Segawa Photo: Allan Blundell
Naoto Segawa was three, maybe four, he can't recall for sure. He can't even remember the name of the TV show, but he's never forgotten a tune that featured on it - Mozart's Turkish March.
Which means the Japanese TV show was doing its job: switching children onto classical music.
"For some reason, that three-year-old me thought that was the coolest music ever."
These days, percussion - especially the marimba - is the musical bread and butter of the Japanese-born, New Zealand-based performer.
Segawa spoke with RNZ Concert ahead of his latest gigs, which range from playing Shostakovich with Orchestra Wellington to premiering new chamber music works by the Kiwi composer Keith Moss.
But how did a classical artist whose career was galvanised by listening to Mozart end up specialising in an instrument that only established itself in the classical realm more than a century and a half after Mozart's death?
That happened because in junior high school Segawa joined the school concert band, which required a lot of marching. Something you can't do easily with a piano.
So Segawa became a percussionist, quite a good one.
From junior high school concert bands, Segawa moved to auditioning for a place in music school at a Japanese university.
As a part of the audition process, he had to play a marimba - a bit of a challenge for a percussionist who'd specialised in drumming.
"I didn't really know what a marimba was honestly, but I basically fell in love."
For Segawa, the marimba represented the perfect blend of his concert band percussion and his ongoing love of the keyboard.
Later this week, Segawa will take part in the world premiere of a new piece by Keith Moss for two percussionists and a quintet of reed instruments - Chamber Dances: Septet Number 2.
Segawa moved down under from the Northern hemisphere for love - first to Australia.
That didn't work out, but it did lead to opportunities to work in New Zealand, something which proved so enjoyable he decided to settle here.
"Everyone's more inviting and kind."
Chamber Dances by Keith Moss gets its world premiere at St Peter’s on Willis, Wellington, this Friday 10 October, followed by a second performance at Te Raukura ki Kapiti, Raumati Beach, on Saturday 11 October.
That same weekend, a recording of Naoto Segawa's playing will feature in a concert at Auckland's Stardome observatory in a premiere of another new piece by Keith Moss in the Auckland Philharmonia’s Strings Under the Stars gig.
