Pococha and Yamaha’s “Sessions without borders” Wins Six Clio Music Awards, Including Gold

February 6, 2026

Hamamatsu, Japan ― The “Sessions without borders” project by Pococha, a live communication app operated by DeNA Co., Ltd., in which Yamaha Corporation (hereinafter “Yamaha”) provided technical support and loaned musical instruments, has won six awards (one Gold, three Silver, and two Bronze) at the 2026 Clio Music Awards, one of the world’s leading advertising awards.
The Clio Awards, considered one of the world's top three advertising awards along with the Cannes Lions and The One Show, are annual awards recognizing innovation and creative excellence in advertising, design, and communication, as judged by an international panel of advertising professionals. The Clio Music Awards were created to celebrate the power of music to connect brands and consumers. Each year, the awards recognize outstanding work in artist self-promotion, music marketing, brand collaboration, and the use of music in advertising.

Yamaha hopes to contribute to the well-being of people around the world through sound and music. We wish to continue bolstering people’s passion and courage to boldly take a step forward, and delivering the joy of music.

Overview of awards won at “2026 Clio Music Awards”

Pococha × Yamaha | with imase “Sessions without borders”

In December 2024, Pococha and Yamaha collaborated to launch the “Sessions without borders” project, with a desire to support all those who enjoy performing.
Based on the concept that “music is more fun when everyone plays together,” a call for participants was put out widely, and a large orchestra of over 120 members from all over Japan was brought together in February 2025 to perform “FRIENDS!!!”, a song written by the new generation artist imase, together with imase himself.
Participants hailed from Aomori in the north to Kumamoto in the south, and ranged from a seven year-old elementary school student who had only been playing the piano for a year and a half through to professional musicians, spanning across musical experience, genres, and generations to create an outstanding performance that embodied the “power of music to transcend boundaries”. In March, a special video of the event and a behind-the-scenes video were released to encourage all music lovers through the joy of playing music and the way the friends who met that day united their hearts to create a song.
Yamaha provided technology to the project to support the participants' performance and established a support system that enabled participation regardless of performance level or proficiency. The original score was divided into four levels using our “score difficulty adjustment technology,” which uses AI to create different piano parts by difficulty level, thereby providing scores that are suited to individual performance levels. During the rehearsal period leading up to the performance, a rehearsal session was held using SYNCROOM^®, a service that enables low latency and high sound quality remote ensembles to be performed remotely. Approximately 50 of the members participated, giving them an opportunity to get a feel for the ensemble and build anticipation for the actual performance. On the day of the performance, pianos, keyboards, and other instruments and equipment were set up in a hall to create an environment conducive to their use.

Scenes from “Sessions without borders”

An elementary school student aged 7 rehearsed and performed using a musical score for beginners created with the “score difficulty adjustment technology”

Remote rehearsal using “SYNCROOM”

[References]

“Sessions without borders” special movie