The power of dreams: Local composer/children's choir win big in Japan

OREM — This story of the power of dreams begins with Masa Fukuda's 91-year-old grandmother, who was shopping in an Osaka, Japan, grocery store and saw a flyer with John Lennon's picture on it. She took it home to her son.

Isn't this a big guy? she asked. Wouldn't Masa be interested? The flyer was about the John Lennon-Yoko Ono International Dream Power music competition.

At his grandmother's urging, Masa Fukuda — who had come to Brigham Young University to study music and is still living and working on his music here — submitted a CD with a couple of songs on it.

Imagine his surprise when he heard that his Christmas song, "Innocence of Youth," was a finalist in the competition. The Dream Power people wanted him and the lead singer on the song, Jay Williams, and the children's choir (12 singers ranging in age from 4-14), and the choir's director Gael Shults, to come to Japan and perform the number in the competition.

"We had nine days to pull it off," said Shults. "We had to pay our own way. We did some fast fund-raising, got some fast passports. It was really a miracle that we got there."

Imagine their delight, however, when they saw their song take the competition's grand prize. (The contest was held in September and Fukuda and friends beat out five other finalists.)

"We were screaming, and hugging each other. It was really cool," said Jamie Hemingway, 13, who sang with the choir.

"We're still finding out just how big it is," said Shults. For one thing, they performed in front of 6,000 media and music-industry professionals, and will be part of a national television broadcast in October. And their song will be released as a single in Japan, with an English version and a karaoke track, and possibly a version done in Japanese.

"And we had just signed that song with a publisher in L.A.," said Jeannine Lasky, who wrote the lyrics, and also went with the group to Japan. "They are now including it on a compilation CD. So great things are happening on both continents."

It was not a choir competition, explains Fukuda. "It was a pop/rock competition." There were two divisions, one for original compositions and one for covers of other songs. Other finalists all came from Japan.

"I think the children won it for us," said Shults. "Yoko Ono was very taken with the children. She's very involved with children's charities." In fact, proceeds from the festival, which included a rock concert with Japan's leading rock stars, go to fund Ono's work building schools in Africa and Asia.

The group got to meet with Ono, which, truth be told, impressed the older members of the group more than the younger ones. "She was very gracious," said Shults. "I was teenagish when all that (Beatles) stuff happened. But she has a lot of dignity packed into a teeny little body."

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