By Sean Coombs
Expo Reporter
The summer holidays have begun in Japan for primary and secondary school students.
Predictably, this has led to increasing visitor numbers at the Expo and masses of people at the Canadian pavilion, especially on weekends.
The most recent weekend was no exception to this, with the scorching summer heat offering little deterrence for the crowds that piled onto trains and buses to get to the expo.
Luckily, those crowds were rewarded for their determination, as two innovative Canadian musical acts played all weekend-long across the Expo.
Those two acts were Electro/Modern Jazz group the Mary Ancheta Quartet and Canadian pianist Sarah Hagen.
A PEI native, Sarah Hagen’s visit to the Expo was a part of her 2025 summer music tour.
However, her Expo performances were her only ones outside Canada for this tour, with the rest of her scheduled performances occurring at more domestic events like the Ottawa Chamberfest in late July.
With plenty of fans to keep her cool, Hagen performed renditions of her favourite classical piano pieces with a unique twist to audiences at the Canadian pavilion’s main stage and at pop up stages around the expo site.
“I play hardcore classical piano, so I do a mix of things people will recognise like Chopin’s Fantasy Impromptu,” she said. “I’ve put in other pieces I hope will become famous one day like music written by women who have often been overlooked like the music of Cécile Chaminade.”
Even though Hagen didn’t know much Japanese before coming to the Expo, she managed to interact with the audience and announce song titles in Japanese with the help of pavilion staff.
“We have a wonderful translator here for the artists,” she said. “He helped me learn a few things phonetically when I got here just to show honour to the Japanese hosts.”
“They are very generous and they applaud every time I say something in Japanese, and that’s very kind of them.”
While Hagen has visited other Expos in the past, she says she’s taken away distinct memories from Osaka.
“I felt so lucky one night when all of a sudden it wasn’t one million degrees in the evening so I was able to go up and walk around on the ring,” she said. “It was perfect light and you could see so far and the air was fresh and beautiful and it felt kind of like walking on air.”
Hagen was referring to the Grand Ring, the immense circular wooden structure that surrounds the vast Expo site. The Grand Ring is believed to be the largest wooden structure in the world right now. It was constructed using a fusion of modern construction methods and traditional Nuki joints, such as those used in the construction of Japanese shrines and temples.
While the intense heat is like nothing she has ever performed in, the solutions she was offered came with unique benefits.
“I kind of like playing with the fans. They really feel like being Beyoncé!”
The Mary Ancheta Quartet also performed at the venues Hagen did, drawing big crowds with their eclectic mixture of electronic and jazz music that had people in the audience dancing and vibing beneath the shadow of the grand Expo ring.
The quartet performed songs from across their discography, including one of their latest singles Lucky Bounce.
The two acts did over eight performances throughout their week-long tenure at the expo, an endeavour that Sarah Hagen hopes the audience found peace in.
“I hope that they find serenity in the music that I’m playing and feel something new,” Hagen said.
The next performances to take place at the Canada pavilion will be a series of rap battles and showcases starting on the 21st of July featuring Canadian and Japanese artists in partnership with the Canadian non-profit 100Lux.