LA Holiday Celebration

This year, TP was invited back to perform at the L.A. Holiday Celebration. So on Christmas Eve, Emily, Liz, Brian, Tomomi, Yumi, Bryon, Courtney and Jen packed up the van, and headed over to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in LA. This holiday program has been around for over four decades and we were very happy be a part of it again this year. Thank you LA County Arts Commission for inviting us back this year!! We had a great time!

Every year, the Holiday Celebration program features a number of guests that participate in a six-hour live performance. We did a short rendition of our song, Omiyage and even had the audience participate with us. The show was broadcast live on KCET. Did you get a chance to catch a glimpse of us..?

Now, all the TP folks are spending some quality time with family and loved ones for the holidays. Hope everyone is having a warm holiday season too!!

Happy Holidays from TAIKOPROJECT! EI...YA...SA!!! =)

TP Holiday Time at Disneyland

This past week, TAIKOPROJECT visited the awesome Holidays at Disneyland! Luckily for us, when we walked into the park, the very fun "A Christmas Fantasy Parade" began right in front of us! We first hit up Space Mountain. Many of us really think it goes faster now for some reason. Very proper first ride!!

Throw in Big Thunder Mountain, dinner at Pizza Port, cream cheese filled and Mickey pretzels, Haunted Mansion, and of course...FIREWORKS, and you have some of the best times at Disneyland.

Of course one of the challenges groups face at the Magic Kingdom is navigating efficiently. I never knew strollers could be so dangerous... I can commit to the fact that TAIKOPROJECT has some of the best Disneyland walkers out there.

Happy Holidays Everyone!!! =)

TP Holiday Gifts now available!

What's the perfect gift for taiko players? How about TP DVDs, shirts, and bachi? Order before Dec. 15 and get FREE SHIPPING and FREE PERSONALIZATION for all gifts! Check out our new TP shirts in purple and teal, as well as in classic black, and our DVDs, a great addition to anyone's taiko DVD library! Check out our 2009 Holiday Order Form!

Open House a Success!

Today TP hosted an Open House to show our new studio off to the general public and thank you to everyone who came out to see it! Actually, last week, our donors got to come check it out first, but today, we opened up to the public!

The studio is still under construction, as the owner has been delayed by city processes and permits, but lots has been done. When we first moved in, it was just a concrete box (with flames on the walls). Since then, we've installed theatrical drapes around the perimeter of the space to absorb some of our noise and improve acoustics, we've hung up some of our show banners from past Rhythmic Relations shows, we've built and started storing our equipment on industrial shelving in the space, we've installed a sound dampening wall on our shared wall and installed a 32' x 6' wall of mirrors, and a 32' x 32' raised, insulated stage. In the next couple of weeks, we'll have two new bathrooms and drywall will be installed in the space, which should insulate our sound pretty well. After that,we'll just have a few other projects that will complete our renovation and we'll be ready to go!

Thank you to all the Long Beach and South Bay folks who came out (as well as my Aunty from Huntington Beach)--and all the taiko groups that came out--folks from Togen Daiko, Kishin Daiko, Kodama Taiko, Touzan Taiko (the new collegiate group from Pomona), UCI Jodaiko, Shin3, TCLA, Kinnara Taiko, and Kitsune Taiko! Stay tuned for more photos and updates about our new studio!

Kris' first performance with TP

Last weekend was my first performance with TaikoProject since beginning rehearsals with the group a few months ago. We performed at the beautiful Aquarium of the Pacific. I'm still learning the pieces so it was a bit nerve-wracking for me, but thanks to Liz, Yuri, Bryan, and Maz, I survived and had a great time. Looking forward to more!

We took a quick photo after the gig... Liz was off changing, as you can see... :)

Building New Taiko!

Bombu Taiko is one of the groups that TAIKOPROJECT has taught since the group started at Higashi. They've been building new drums for the past few weeks and have been working really hard. I think there's about a dozen barrels that they're working on, which will really add to what is already there. I helped with some sanding about 2 weeks ago and it's a lot of work! Still, I found the sanding to have sort of a ... meditative feeling. I kind of zoned out. It really is a lot of work, with so many different steps. The part that I helped out with was just a tiny part of the process for one drum. I'll be going back to help out some more!

I'm really excited to see and hear the new drums. There's lots of Bombu love going into them! :)

- Quick remider: our open house for the brand new studio is coming up!

Sunday, 10/11 - Encino Folk Music Festival

Encino Folk Music Festival - Encino Park, Encino, CA

Today we ventured into "the Valley" (as Californians call it) for a performance at Encino's Folk Music Festival! Bryan, Maz, Yuri, Liz, Andrew, and myself were attendance and with high spirits as we were prepared to play a somewhat longer set than we had lately been playing.

We arrived amidst the hustle and bustle of a booming festival, complete with jester-like entertainers and line-dancing. There was even a standing taiko that anyone was free to jam on!

After dropping off our fearless navigator, Maz, to find the unloading entrance for performers, we finally circled around the block and found the correct entrance. Unloading was a breeze, as the cheery staff was eager to help. As we got to the stage and started to lay out our equipment, the Polynesian Paradise group of Tahitian dancers were getting ready to perform. We were really feeling their groovy beats, and we could tell by the hip-shaking shuffle of some of the audience members, that they were too. After the Tahitian dancers cleared off, it was our time.

We set up on what was a surprisingly small stage, and crossed our fingers that we would not hit the awning directly over our heads, or each other. The set went pretty well and based on the positive feedback we received afterward, we could tell many of the Long Beach patrons in attendance were intrigued by the announcement that we were moving to Long Beach soon (if you haven't already checked out the promo video below, be sure to do so!). Like I said earlier, we played a longer set than usual - about 7(?) songs - so we were thoroughly juiced by the end of it.

The entire volunteer staff at the festival was very welcoming, encouraging, and extremely helpful! They made the unloading and loading process very easy, which was good since we were all pretty tired!

As we finished packing up our gear, we knew that while our stay at the gathering was over for the day, the festival would go on......for about another 2 hours.

And with that, I leave you with some pictures from the festival in 2003 (b/c we didn't bring a camera)











Yay Encino Folk Music Festival!

-Kevin

Support the Cause!

Hi everyone! We're launching an end-of-the-year fundraising campaign to help renovate our new warehouse into SoCal's only dedicated taiko studio. Check out our website for all the info you need. Also check out this video that Bryan and I put together at the warehouse:

We have doors!!!

This is Jen about two weeks ago next to our yellow wall outside by the parking lot. No doors, no windows, no way to get inside from this wall. It's actually the other side of the wall with flames.

Last weekend, as I was driving home late at night, I stopped by the warehouse and we had new doors installed! Two to be exact! Here's one of them!

Please excuse the bright light at the bottom... that was my car. :p

Bryan recently went inside to take a look at the renovations. He said there's a lot going on in there! Can't wait to see it in a few weeks!

:)

SushiMasters 2009

This past Sunday, Bryan, Liz, Kevin, Jenny and I performed at the 2009 SushiMasters Competition in Little Tokyo! Bryan was really excited about getting to see/meet Brian Malarkey from Top Chef Season 3.

We started off the competition in the JAT...and I managed to not fall off the stage! yay! Once the competition was done, we continued our performance out at the JACCC Plaza as the attendees milled about enjoying the endless samples of sushi and sake...mmm yum! :) After we packed up and took everything back to Higashi, we followed our tummies back to the sushi and got to sample some ourselves...I'm getting hungry just thinking about it :-P

O, almost forgot to mention it, but this performance marked the debut of our newest piece dubbed Island Groove and is our first marimba song! See the picture at the top? Yup, that's the one! It's a nice mellow piece amidst our usual high energy taiko pieces.

Short blog, but my computer is not a happy camper at the moment, so I will leave you with the quote of the day :)

"All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt." -Charles M. Schulz <-- I totally agree :-D 'Til the next blog!

Keiro Performance!

On the evening of Friday, September 18th, TAIKOPROJECT performed for the wonderful people at Keiro. Despite it being a bit hot, I really enjoyed myself, and I think the audience members enjoyed themselves as well.

The best part had to be during Shishimai, when Byron got really creative with the crowd. The little ladies in the front row looked a bit frightened at first by the big lion approaching them, but they were soon laughing and exchanging squeals with one another. It was really really cute and very entertaining. After the performance, we had the opportunity to talk to a lot of the attendees. Another great perk was the yummy yummy bento box we each received after the show. :)

Overall, it was a great learning experience and one that I'll always remember.

We started moving in!

We started moving some of our things into the new space today! I can't believe we're actually doing this! The owner is getting ready to do some major renovations (which will take a few weeks), then we have to do some of our own... and then we officially move in! AAaahh! :)

Here's Bryan pulling the trailer in...

... and here I am with Emily posing in front of our wall!

So, should we keep the flames or paint over it? So far, on Twitter, people are saying we should keep the flames!

If we paint over it, what should we put there instead? We're taking requests!! Let us know!!

:)

Ah, yes, the big news!

So, if you've been following us on Twitter or have visited our official website , then you already know the news, but here it is!!

We just signed a lease for a warehouse! That means, we're going to have a studio!

It'll be the only studio dedicated to taiko in southern California.

We're really excited to start brainstorming new programs and other things we can do in the studio. We're hoping to grow more as an organization through this big move.

Where is this new studio going to be? It'll be in Long Beach! Personally, my commute just got shortened to 2 minutes.

We're still waiting on renovations to complete, but I'm so excited to move in!

We hope to keep you updated throughout this exciting process, so stay tuned!!!

If you have any thoughts or ideas about what we can do with our new space, don't hesitate to leave a comment!

Big news!! Big news!!

I can't believe it actually happened!! Stay tuned for the big news and the official announcement!!!

:)

Next Generation Remix Concert

This past Saturday we got to perform at the JACCC Plaza in Little Tokyo for the sixth annual Next Generation Remix, a free outdoor concert presented by the Nikkei Federation and produced by our good friend, Kisa Ito (check out the trailer here)! The line-up also featured many talented Asian American artists such as Kacie Yoshida, Sibrian, EyeASage, Bambu, and American Idol finalist Camile Velasco. I especially liked the smooth hip-hop beats of Bambu and the soulful singing of Camile Velasco. They both had so much energy and really got the crowd going! There was also a raffle and Jenny & Tomomi were lucky enough to win a couple prizes!!

Since this event was apart of Nisei Week, throughout the concert there were booths all along the plaza perimeter selling okonomiyaki, shaved ice, and grilled corn, among many other tasty treats. I got a HUGE green tea shaved ice with azuki beans and condensed milk...YUMMM!!

It was a really fun night and we're glad to have been apart of the show. Congratulations to Kisa for doing such a wonderful job running the event!

Here are a few video clips from the performance:

Here We Go Now

Expanding

Lava Cool

Congratulations Supreme Master TV!!

Last Sunday, Maz, Darren, Kevin, Brian, Liz & Jen helped Supreme Master TV celebrate at their 3rd anniversary Concert: Rejoicing in our Green Planet and Peaceful Life. Supreme Master TV is a broadcast station that tries to bring nobility & spirituality to their viewers' lives through programs that promote living green, healthy, and compassionately. They even served a vegan menu where we got to enjoy some vegan sandwiches & vegan cupcakes while we waited...yum!

TAIKOPROJECT was the opening act of the Concert and was later followed by other performances with Korean Court & Thai dancers. At the end, we received gift bags that included Supreme Master TV shirts, hats & books. You just might see Kevin or Brian out one day sporting their new Supreme Master TV hats =)
The Concert is scheduled to air on September 7th in the U.S.

Studio Search...

Hi everyone (or whoever actually reads this besides TP members)...

Just thought I'd post something since it's been awhile since I've posted. As some of you may know, we've been searching for a warehouse for the past 6 months or so, in order to expand our capacity as a non-profit organization, to offer more classes, and to create a kick-ass taiko rehearsal studio with mirrors, stage flooring, and for once, ample storage space and organization for our bulky and ever-growing inventory of equipment.

After much searching and driving around sketchy industrial neighborhoods for a few months, I finally found what I think may be the warehouse for us. We have come close with three other warehouses, but they didn't come together for various reasons...the first one, the owner backed out because he thought we'd be too loud for neighboring tenants, the second, just seemed too close to residential areas, and the third fell through because of lease negotiations with the owner.

Well, here we are several months later, and we may have found the warehouse for us...the only thing is, that it is in Long Beach. Since half of the TP cast is from Orange County, we hear cheers from them about the move. For us LA folks, well, it just means we now have a longer drive, but it's a small sacrifice for what will hopefully be our new space, and Southern California's only dedicated taiko studio. If all goes well, in a few weeks, we'll be signed off on leases and moving into a 3,200 square feet warehouse down in Long Beach, and getting it set up to be an amazing space.

More news to come! It's an exciting time, and we couldn't have gotten this far without your support!

Bryan

LA Tap Fest!

Last Saturday, TAIKOPROJECT went to Central LA Area New High School #9 to accompany tap dancers during their opening number for the Los Angeles Tap Fest! This new high school is beautiful and the theater is amazing. The architecture is modern and it's hard to believe that it's even a high school at all!

The piece we were in was part of a documentary that followed tap dancers from around the world and to follow their tap dreams. We accompanied Chloe Arnold, the festival's co-director and awesome tap dancer, and 4 tap dancers from Japan. We were there to recreate a piece they performed in Tokyo. We also saw the festival's director, Jason Samuels Smith, and many others dance. There were these little kids who were tearing up the stage, too. Awesome!!

Maz, Jen, Brian, Courtney, and I had a fun time performing with Kris Bergstrom!! Yup, he came with us to this gig and I think he even got tap pointers from the dancers! Who knows... maybe he'll bust out a tap solo some time soon! hehe!!

:)

-Yuri

2009 North American Taiko Conference

Last week TAIKOPROJECT took part in the 2009 North American Taiko Conference! The conference returned to LA this year and was hosted by the JACCC (www.jaccc.org). This was my first time attending conference so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was pretty much an amazing few days of everything and everyone taiko! I had the privilege of helping Byron and Kevin out with the Omiyage workshop on Saturday. For the first two hours we split our group up into two groups. Byron took one group to teach the chu part and Kevin and I took the other for the set part. In the beginning, I was really nervous because it was my first time teaching a workshop, and I was wondering how we were going to teach omiyage in just two hours. After seeing how quickly the participants were learning, I soon realized that learning how to play omiyage in two hours is possible! For the last portion of the workshop, we got back into one group and played Omiyage together. I was truly amazed at how enthusiastic everyone was about learning this piece and how fast they learned it as well. I was so happy I was able to take part in the taiko conference this year! The only regret I have is that I did not attend as a participant. Next time i will definitely be signing up as a participant!

~Jenny~

50th Annual Higashi Honganji Obon

Hey! Bruno's first blog!

This past weekend we performed at Higashi Honganji's 50th annual obon. Bombu & Kitsune also performed along with several other groups. It wasn't easy with the hot weather & spacing, but we had a great time performing on our home court and there were minimal injuries (Jenn!) and minimal amount of dropped bachi (Bruno!). Obon season is always one of my favorite times of the year, and performing at Obon is always special. Thanks to everyone who came out to support us and the temple.

Here We Go Now


Expanding


Lava Cool


Shishimai


Be sure to look out for us next at the Kids FunZone at the Orange County Fair this Wednesday to Sunday. If you are in the Northern Northern Cali area, check out my roommate Maz at Shasta Yama!

Rancho Cucamonga World Music in the Victoria Gardens Courtyard

Today was Chensy's first performance, as well as my first performance! Although he had a bit of a fever, he did great, and we both had a blast! We were out in hot hot Rancho Cucamonga at the Victoria Gardens Courtyard. It's a beautiful space perfect for events such as this. Besides performing, I think my favorite part of the event was the basket of apples provided for us in our dressing room. They were so delicious! Thanks to all who came out to watch, thanks to the event organizers, and thanks to the team for all of your support today. Great job everyone! :)

Photo Shoot!

Yesterday, we had a photo shoot at the Japan America Theater to take new PR photos.
Steven Nguyen was our photographer and Scott, our lighting director, also came to help out!

Here's a behind-the-scenes shot!


















Can't wait to see the images!

Busy!!!

Busy week coming up for us!
Tomorrow, we have a big photo shoot.
Wednesday, we have a performance in Rancho Cucamonga at 6pm. It's free for everyone!!
Thursday, we practice for...
Higashi Obon this weekend!! TAIKOPROJECT performs on Saturday and Bombu Taiko and Kitsune Taiko perform on Saturday and Sunday!

For more info about the above performances, check out our timeline page on our website!


Make sure to come back for updates!

100th Day Celebration for Little Tokyo Market Center

Hi Everyone!

This past weekend, Bryan, Maz, Yuri, Yumi, Kevin, and I had the opportunity to perform at the 100th Day Celebration for the Little Tokyo Market Center. The performance went well but it was HOT! We played five songs total, half on stage and half on concrete since the stage was fairly small.
Now it's really starting to feel like summer! Playing taiko in the hot sun, and getting our TP-costume tan line at the same time. Thank you to Kevin for having sunscreen that day! It totally helped! Anyways, it was a hot day but a fun performance!
If you would like to see more of TAIKOPROJECT, we will be performing in Rancho Cucamanga next Wednesday, as well as the Higashi Obon (Sat. only) along with Bombu Taiko and Kitsune Taiko.

Happy Summer! :]

Asia Society's Annual Dinner

Last Tuesday, we performed at Asia Society's Annual Dinner, where they were honoring Tim Leiweke and Kobe Bryant. Yes, THE Kobe Bryant!!



We arrived at the Beverly Hills Hilton around 4pm, did some sound checks, and then were escorted to our green room area. We had a few hours, so I suggested to Tomomi and Bryan that we should do some Ab Ripper X from the P90X program. As we were doing some major ab work, the Laker girls came through our room! We exchanged "hello"s a few times since the dinner station was set up in our room.

We played "Here We Go Now" at the top of the program to get people to their dinner seats.

This is the award that Kobe received!


Unfortunately, we didn't get to talk to him, meet him... or see him. :-/
But it was cool to perform at an event that he was at! :)

Next up, free performance in Little Tokyo TOMORROW!

Kitsune Taiko Performs!

Last Sunday, our youth group, Kitsune Taiko, performed for JACCC's Annual Gala Dinner. They were honoring those who have made significant contributions to JACCC and the JA community. One of the people getting honored at the event was Tanaka Sensei (San Francisco Taiko Dojo).

They performed in the Japan America Theater at the end of the program before the actual dinner.

Here they are... playing "Seiko"! Great job!!! :)

Day of Service Festival

Last week, we performed for Mayor Villaraigosa's Day of Service Festival.


We played "Here We Go Now" and "Expanding" before he arrived and "Many Sides" as he was leaving.

He shook hands with all of us as he was heading onto the stage!


The Terminix mascot was there, too....



It was a fun performance... and somehow I was the only one that got sunburned! My poor shoulders are two totally different colors. Well, summer's here and I'm sure I'll have lots of opportunity to get a more even tan!

TAIKOPROJECT at JANM!

On Saturday, June 20th, TAIKOPROJECT performed for the 10th anniversary of the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) Pavilion! In 2005, JANM gave us the opportunity to conduct taiko residencies during their Big Drum Taiko exhibit and it was a great opportunity for us to show our appreciation to JANM by helping them celebrate their anniversary.

This performance was also special because it was the first performance for our newest TAIKOPROJECT trainee, Jenny Mimura! While she was a little nervous that she would hit someone in the head with the TP banner, she did a great job!



Check out some photos of the performance from local photographer Marc Amba

Free performances!!!

Hey everyone!!

Just wanted to let you know that we have several FREE performances coming up that are open to the public!

Come check out the "Timeline" section on our website!

Hope to see you there!


:)

Performing for lots and lots of students!!

Last Thursday, we culminated the Classroom Connections program by performing at the Carpenter Center in Long Beach. The theater was amazing!



Since all the students had one of us go into their classrooms to talk about taiko already, we adjusted our school show and added in additional information that we don't usually get to talk about in a typical school show. The first show had 1000 students and the second show had 800 students.



It was nice to connect with the students in the classrooms first (I guess that's why they call it 'Classroom Connections'!!). :)

Asano's 400th Anniversary

Bryan and I are in Japan for Asano's 400th Year Anniversary. 400 years! Wow... this is really special.

After traveling for almost 24 hours, we arrived late last night, checked in to our hotel, and tried to get sleep. Jet lag is rough...

Today we had a nice Japanese breakfast at the hotel, then made our way over to Asano's company warehouse and store where they were having the event. Saw a lot of taiko people from both Japan and the U.S. It was nice to catch up with everyone amongst the chaos.

Here's Bryan in front of a huge odaiko. We want one!






















Here's the room where they keep all of the taiko for sale. Beautiful drums! This was only half of the room. The other half had many more taiko.

















Did some shopping for bachi and kane, then we met with Ryutaro Kaneko for some possible future collaborations. We're really excited to have this opportunity!

After our meeting we went back to our hotel and got dressed up for the reception! Yes, yes... Bryan and I actually own suits, believe it or not... Do we look sharp?






















Throughout the reception, there were many performances. This one in particular is from Kabuki (I think... correct me if I'm wrong). These guys had wild hair!

















We go to more events tomorrow, then maybe Kanazawa on Monday to do some omiyage shopping.

TP in Long Beach~!!

For the last two weeks, Bryan, Maz, Jen, Courtney, Jason, and I have been going into elementary school classrooms in Long Beach. We would go to the schools alone and teach the class... like we were guest teachers! This would be a typical day for one of us that did lessons that day:

-Drive to the elementary school, usually when school started
-Meet up with someone from the Carpenter Center (which is where our big school show will be this Thursday)
-Unload the car full of equipment for the lessons (chu, chu stand, shime, shime stand, okedo, okedo stand, percussion bag, a skate to put it all on, etc.)
-Wheel the equipment into class #1
-Do the lesson (demo and intro, taiko in Japan, taiko in US, drum talk, percussion talk, kiai talk, kids learn song and play on drums, q&a)
-Pack everything back up
-Wheel equipment to class #2
-Repeat above steps

For each school we went to, we had about 3-4 classrooms that we visited. Then, this Thursday (tomorrow), TP will go to the Carpenter Center in Long Beach to do two school shows. From what I hear, the Carpenter Center has a huge, beautiful theater! I'm excited to do a school show in such a big venue!

It's pretty neat that the Carpenter Center provides this program to the students in Long Beach. Prior to our classroom visits, they send someone else in a week or two ahead of time to talk about performing arts, music, and to give a little background about taiko. Then, we go into the classrooms to talk more in depth about taiko. After getting all this background knowledge about taiko, they come to the theater to watch the show. It's not just about getting exposed to different cultures, but they emphasize on the students to try and retain the information. Cool, huh? :)

We'll have an update about how our school shows went!
In other news, Bryan and Maz will be leaving for Japan tomorrow to attend Asano Taiko's 400th Anniversary! Have fun!

:)

Odaiko workshop with Yoshikazu Fujimoto!

Last Thursday, through KASA, TAIKOPROJECT and Bombu members had the opportunity to take a workshop with Yoshikazu Fujimoto. Yoshikazu, one of the founders of Kodo, is the senior most performing member of Kodo. He is also the featured Odaiko player for the group so when I heard he was giving us a workshop on odaiko at our practice space (Higashi), I was super excited! Little did I know what kind of workout I was about to get.

To put it briefly, his workshop consisted of learning an Odaiko song through kuchishoga, air bachi, and then playing it on the drums. He taught us his style of playing and then we played... and played... and played. I'll only speak for myself, but I thought my arms were going to fall off. haha!

After the workshop, Yoko Fujimoto performed for us. She sang a lullaby from Japan. There's something about her amazing voice that really moves people. Then, Yoko and Yoshikazu sang a duet for us. Yoshikazu started off singing Kiyari and Yoko came in with Hachijou. They both have super powerful voices and to hear those songs live only 10 feet away from you was quite an experience. Then they did a more upbeat, festive song for us.

What's a taiko gathering without food and drinks! We stayed afterwards and ate yummy snacks. Throughout the workshop, I couldn't help but think how lucky we were to take a workshop. Recently, it's been TP that gives workshops (which we love to do) and we rarely taken any. So, when the opportunity comes, you can count me in!

Thanks Donna for setting this all up for us! Yay! I had so much fun and it makes me want to play Odaiko more!

I didn't get to take too many photos, but here's one!
Maz, Yoko, Yoshikazu, Bryan, me, and Courtney.

:)

TaikoProject goes back to school!!

UC Irvine to be exact. Home of Jodaiko and the alma mater to many of TP’s current cast members. This Memorial day weekend marked the 15th annual Intercollegiate Taiko Invitational where 14 schools from all over the country gathered together for a jam-packed weekend of fun, friends, food, and most importantly.. taiko.

It was a star-studded weekend with workshop leaders Kenny Endo, Kodo’s Yoshikazu & Yoko Fujimoto, Shasta Taiko’s Russel Baba & Jeanne Mercer, Portland Taiko’s Michelle Fujii, On Ensemble’s Kris Bergstrom and Maz Baba, San Jose Taiko, and Kinnara Taiko. TaikoProject had the honor of being among these taiko greats, leading two different workshops themed Sling Okedo and Syncopation.

And just when you think things couldn’t get more exciting, each day ended with a 2 hour concert emceed by Maz. Debuting this year was CSU Long Beach’s Umidaiko and Brown University’s Brown Gendo Taiko!

Congratulations to Jodaiko for a successful invitational! A huge kudos to Sylvia Gunde, Invitational Coordinator for all her hard work and dedication. I wish i had my own pictures to show instead of stealing them from facebook...

My favorite moment of the weekend?
The creative way that collegiate taiko spends their downtime: The Ninja Game. If you don’t know what it’s all about, ask any collegiate taiko player to fill you in.

The Windy City and some artsy stuff

TP traveled to Chicago to perform on May 9th for the opening of the Art Institute of Chicago’s new Modern Wing! Bryan and Jason made the long drive in the van with all the equipment. (Thanks guys!) The rest of us flew out on Thursday. Courtney, Kevin, Jenny, Emily, and I flew out of LA, while Kelsey made the flight from Seattle.

This was Jenny’s first time performing for TP, how exciting! Emily graciously took time out of her schedule (ie: skipped classes) to help us for this gig. Also, this was the first time several of us had the opportunity to perform with Kelsey. Good Stuff!

After arriving in Chicago, we checked into our hotel, The Palmer House® Hilton. We were only a short walk from the Art Institute, so we all checked out the stage we were going to perform on. Finally, we ate some grub at Miller’s Pub and called it a night.

Friday was a loooong day of rehearsal. In the morning, we brought all of our equipment to the stage so we could set everything up. We had a loading crew help us, which was nice because we needed to drag everything up the stairs. Once we had all the drums in place and did sound check, we had a chance to meet the members of Project Bandaloop, the group of dancers that would be performing to our music. These were no ordinary dancers though. They don't like dancing on floors... that's too boring. So instead they would be rappelling from the top of the newly constructed building and performing mid-air on the wall! This looked like a lot of fun and Emily really wished she could also hang 50 feet in the air on a little rope to try it!



When we had breaks from rehearsing, we would head back to our green room to take a load off. We were fed quite well here with a plentiful bounty of fruits, veggies, crackers, snacks, and juice along with our meals. They also had the world's greatest granola bar for breakfast! I'm a big granola bar fan, and these things were just stupendous! Unfortunately, the staff took them away before lunchtime so I only got to eat one... and I didn't even take a picture of it!

Before the end of the day, we had finalized our song/dance arrangement and needed to run a dress rehearsal. The girls were fitted in the morning for their custom outfits, which were red and delightfully shiny. The guys wore the oh-so-comfortable fundoshi. Our run through went well and we were finally done after being on site for over 12 hours.

Saturday was our performance day, but we had a few hours of free time, so we became tourists and walked around town. Kevin really had the urge to get high, so first we walked to the Sears Tower, the tallest skyscraper in the United States. A little factoid I learned was that it will be renamed to Willis Tower this year :( Well... at least we can say we were here when it was still Sears Tower. The elevator going up to the Skydeck was super smooth and fast. It took us to the 99th floor in about a minute and a few birds even gave us a brief history about the building. I was disappointed because usually it goes to the 103rd floor, but it was closed for renovation.



View from Sears Tower - Nice shot of Lake Michigan huh?


Great views in every direction! While I was commenting on the nice ocean view, Kevin gave me sort of a "you're an idiot" look. Apparently Chicago is not near an ocean... and the large body of water turned out to be Lake Michigan. Who would've known?

We also saw Buckingham Fountain and walked in Millennium Park where we saw a large wall fountain with faces that spit out water (artistic!), and my personal favorite, a large metal bean called Cloud Gate. It doesn't sound exciting, but not only was this the biggest bean I've ever seen, it was also mirror surfaced! Genius!



The face on the wall changes and sometimes spits out water! No joke..



Cloud Gate - The greatest Bean I've ever seen

After our sight seeing, we ate and got ready for the 10pm performance. This night just happened to be one of the coldest nights of our trip, so we ended up performing in 40 degree weather wearing very little clothing (almost nothing...) I guess that made for an exciting experience! Everything went well and the audience enjoyed it. Once we warmed up and packed our equipment, it was finally time to eat some Chicago pizza! We strategically waited until AFTER our performance to indulge in this food!


In front of Buckingham Fountain.

Chicago was an awesome city and we had a great trip! The only thing I regret was I didn't eat a Chicago-style hot dog! What was I thinking? Oh well, next time...

SB Show... and wine tasting the next day!

Friday morning, Bryan, Maz, Jen, Jason, Courtney, and I did a school show for about 1200 kids! They all came into the theater. I must say, I think it was the biggest school show I've ever done!

The rest of the cast drove up and met up with us at the theater... just in time for some lunch!
We had our sound checks and cue-to-cue rehearsal and then, it was time for the show!


This is how some of us get ready before a show...



Hair and makeup time!!



Ready!!

Show Time~! Yumi, Courtney, Jen, and me



Then, we did our show!! Sorry, no pics from the actual show... Thank you everyone who came out to see us!

The theater after the show.



Load out...





The next day, we woke up... and went wine tasting! We hired Captain Jack's Wine Tours to take us around to 4 places (Summerland Winery, Santa Barbara Winery, Live Culture, and Kalyra).

Wine tasting with 14 people! We had a lot of fun.





And then, we went home! :) What a fun weekend!