08.26.10 08.18.10 08.09.10 08.03.10 08.02.10 07.26.10 07.21.10 07.14.10 07.13.10 07.12.10 07.09.10 07.07.10 06.21.10 06.15.10 06.12.10 06.11.10 06.09.10 05.25.10 05.19.10 05.18.10 05.16.10 05.11.10 05.08.10 05.02.10 04.22.10 04.20.10 04.05.10 04.03.10
In early August, we recorded tracks for Sam Spiegel for the 2010 Target Kaleidoscopic Fashion Spectacular. Check out the video here! Looks like it was pretty amazing! Target rented out the Standard Hotel in New York City and put together a dance/light production on the entire side of the hotel. Thanks Sam for including us in such a breathtaking production!
We just got back from the Indiana State Fair! Skinning some new drums at home and getting ready for a free performance at the Levitt Pavilion next week. Come on by Thursday night, Aug. 26, at 7:30 pm!
This Thursday, we head out to Indianapolis to perform at the Indiana State Fair, sponsored by the Japan America Society of Indiana! If you happen to be in the Midwest, come on out and see us at the Fair! New photos have been added to our Picasa photo galleries from ShastaYama 2010 and Higashi Obon, enjoy!
Thank you to Squeak E. Clean Productions for asking us to come out for a recording session at the legendary Capitol Studios in Hollywood for the exciting event coming up in New York this month! Call on us anytime you guys need taiko! TP trivia: we recorded back in 2008 with Squeak E. Clean on two major projects, the Nike:Fast Forward commercial and the Kanye West Glow in the Dark tour.
Thank you to Russel Baba and Jeanne Mercer for inviting us up to ShastaYama 2010! We had a fantastic time and it was an honor to share the stage with Shasta Taiko, Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble, and the O.G. TAIKOPROJECT women, Michelle Fujii and Naoko Amemiya! Next up, we head out to Indianapolis for the Indiana State Fair to perform at the Japan America Society Bridges to Japan pavilion.
Thank you to everyone for coming out to the Higashi Honganji Obon Festival this past weekend! Good job, Bombu and Kitsune for putting on fantastic performances. Coming up next, we head up to Mt. Shasta to perform with Shasta Taiko and Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble, and then we head out to Indianapolis for the Indiana State Fair!
Congratulations TP member Yuri Yoshida and husband Hiro Kanamaru on their new baby daughter, Yuna Joy, born this past Monday at 3:45 pm!! New Kitsune Taiko member in 2018?
Our new Surrounding Suns CD is now available online! Check it out on our CDBaby page, where you can buy, review, comment, and check out our DVDs, too!
TAIKOPROJECT is pleased to welcome our 2010 trainee class: Candice Shikai (formerly hailing from UCLA Kyodo Taiko and the Kenny Endo Taiko Ensemble), Keiko Harada (from UCLA Kyodo Taiko and OCBC Daion Taiko), Doug Sakamoto (from UCI Jodaiko and San Jose Junior Taiko), and David Wells (from the Kenny Endo Taiko Ensemble and Stanford Taiko). Welcome to the TP family!
Thank you to everyone who came out to our Rhythmic Relations 2010 concerts at the Ford! Congrats Bombu Taiko, Kitsune Taiko & the Chibis, and Loma Pacific Taiko on fantastic performances all weekend long. And a big thank you to all the parents, volunteers, tech staff, Ford staff, and family for supporting us not only tonight but over the past ten years! Up next, performances at Higashi Honganji Obon, ShastaYama, and the Indiana State Fair!
Tomorrow is our big show at the Ford Amphitheatre!!! There are still tickets available for Rhythmic Relations 2010 at the Ford Theatre box office! Come see the biggest taiko show of the year!!
Three days to the big show!!! There are still tickets available for Rhythmic Relations 2010 at the Ford Amphitheatre! Join us for an exciting weekend of taiko in Hollywood!
Rhythmic Relations 2010 is coming up soon! This is sure to be our most exciting home concert yet! We are debuting six new songs, our new Surrounding Suns CD, celebrating our 10-year anniversary, and premiering a new taiko group from our Long Beach Studio, Loma Pacific Taiko! Come check it out, it will be a fantastic evening of taiko at the beautiful Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood. Click here to listen to a special preview track from the new CD, the song "Here We Go Now!!" by Bryan Yamami and Maz Baba!!
Bryan's set with Stevie Wonder at the Bonnaroo Festival was an amazing experience. Instead of just one song, it ended up being one song, plus an extended jam session, plus unrehearsed accompaniment to Stevie's closing song to his set. Thank you to Stevie and his band, especially the rhythm section--Munungyo, Fausto, and Stanley! Photos and video coming soon! In the meantime, check out our new RR2010 Promo Video and our FAMSA Commercial for the Kurazai motorcycles (airing in Mexico)!
Tonight, Bryan performs with Stevie Wonder at the Bonnaroo Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. This is going to be awesome! We are only playing one song (A Time to Love) with Stevie, but it's a big production near the end of his set, featuring seven solid world drummers (including Chalo Eduardo and Amir Sofi), and a 20-person choir from Nashville.
Thank you to Michael at Bollotta Entertainment for bringing us down to San Diego to perform at the Sony Technology Center!
Plans are coming together for the big show, Rhythmic Relations 2010, at the Ford Amphitheatre on July 10 & 11! It is sure to be our most exciting and dynamic show yet! Come on by and share a fun evening of taiko with us in Hollywood! In other news, we are performing for the opening of a new Sony office in San Diego tomorrow, and then Bryan will be going to Nashville to guest perform with pop legend Stevie Wonder! Stay tuned for special preview rehearsal videos from our development of new songs for the Ford show, and a preview track from our new CD, "Surrounding Suns," coming soon...
New bookings added to our timeline page! In August, we'll be heading back out to Indiana--Indianapolis this time for the Indiana State Fair, then back in town for a "(re)generation" show at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center in October. Bookings also confirmed for Geneseo, New York, Escondido, California, and Longview, Washington for the 2010 - 2011 touring season!
New photos added to our Picasa web galleries (click from the Quicklinks bar above), and new blog postings on our blog (also click from Quicklinks bar)! Coming up next, a short shishimai lion dance for the press conference for the OCJapan Festival announcement and then pushing through with plans for Rhythmic Relations 2010! Have you gotten your tickets yet?
TAIKOPROJECT has received a major grant to partially fund a residency with former Artistic Director of KODO, Ryutaro Kaneko from 2010 - 2011! The plan is to develop new works for TP to be debuted at Rhythmic Relations 2011 next year. Stay tuned for more developments as this exciting international creative effort gets underway!
Yesterday was one of TP's busiest days to date! In the morning, we performed at the Los Angeles' Episcopal Diocese to perform in the prelude to their annual consecration of new bishops at the Long Beach Arena, while Jen led a team to San Francisco to perform at a special private event. Then the Long Beach team headed to the Greek Theatre to perform at a sold-out show with rock band 30 Seconds to Mars, playing in three songs--"Escape," "L490," and "Vox Populi." Taiko added to a "rock anthem" like "Vox Populi" worked perfectly well together, and as 30STM drummer Shannon Leto told us after rehearsal, "this is gonna f**king rock!" Thank you Shannon, Jared, and Tomo for inviting us to play with you guys, it was an unforgettable experience!
Maz and Bryan are driving the equipment home, and also doing workshops with Smokin' Bachi Taiko in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Kyorei Taiko Kai in Phoenix, Arizona. On May 15, we will be guest performing with rock band 30 Seconds to Mars at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles! Come on by to see us mix taiko with some of their spectacular music!
Just finished an awesome week-long residency with high school students at Playhouse Square in Cleveland--photos and videos coming soon! Thank you to Colleen, Linda, and Tony at the Playhouse Square! Congrats to the newly-minted taiko players of Atsumari Daiko: Jacob, Jeni, Erika, Nathan, Zack, Brittany, and Andrew!
We are back on the road! We'll be in Cleveland for a full week at the Playhouse Square, working with high school students, doing four school shows, and performing in the International Children's Festival on May 9. After we get back, we will be playing with rock band 30 Seconds to Mars at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, and gearing up for a number of other local performances. Don't forget to pick up your tickets for Rhythmic Relations 2010, coming up on July 10 & 11, 2010!
We are back in LA! Twelve great days on the road have come to an end, and we only have about a week back at home before we fly out to Cleveland for a week-long residency at the Playhouse Square. Then we begin our drive back to LA taking the warmer Southern route! Plans are also in full swing for our upcoming home shows at the Ford Amphitheatre, coming up on July 10 & 11, 2010. We are going to be debuting about six new songs, so you won't want to miss any of it! It'll also be the release party for our first and new CD recording, produced by none other than our own Masato Baba!
Whew! It's been quite a tour,and it's almost done! We have had some really fun workshops with taiko groups across the country, and had an unforgettable performance in Indiana hosted by the Fort Wayne Dance Collective! We started off with a short drive to Las Vegas, where we hung out with Jen, Dave, and Lisa Sara from Las Vegas Kaminari Taiko, then had a fun set of workshops with the folks in Moab Taiko Dan. Thanks Hop and Sheila for setting the workshops up! After that, we headed through the Rockies to Denver to have a fun workshop with Denver Junior Taiko. Thank you Aiko for setting it all up and taking care of us!! While in Denver, we also picked up some new bags from our favorite taiko bag-maker extraordinaire, Toni Yagami! Then we drove out to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where...we did nothing (it was just a good eight-hour drive from Denver. The next day we headed to Chicago, Illinois, where we conducted a workshop with Ho Etsu Taiko, Kokyo Taiko, and MBT Taiko. Thanks Jason, Rev. Ron, and Elaine for all your work in setting up the workshop, and to Erik and Christine for taking care of us in Chicago! Hmmm...this post is getting long, but a lot has gone on in the last eleven days. Next we headed to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and had a day of residency activities with the kids at Weisser Park Elementary School and Fort Wayne Taiko. On April 17, we had a sold-out house at the United Arts Center for our show there, helped out in large part to the hard work of Liz, Andy and the Fort Wayne Dance Collective Staff, as well as this feature article from the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. Yesterday, we performed at the Fort Wayne Cherry Blossom Festival, thanks to Noel, Maggie, and Liam Knox for their hospitality, and after driving to Ohio, we just had a fun Omiyage workshop for the kids at the Dublin Middle School! Thank you to the boosters and Susann for bringing us out to see your fantastic taiko program! We also met Rachel, who teaches the Elementary kids taiko here, and Prof. Eric Paton, local taiko instructor and Burlington Taiko leader Stuart Paton's twin brother! Tomorrow, we have our last workshop of the tour with Pittsburgh Taiko. It's been a fun tour and it's exciting to see taiko thriving all across the U.S. More news to come...
Tickets are now on sale for Rhythmic Relations 2010! Advance tickets and discounted group sales are available directly from the Ford Amphitheatre Box Office. If you want the best seats in the house, consider donating to our 2010 BaseBeat Campaign! This year, we not only have the best seats reserved for our donors, but also new perks such as advance copies of our new CD, and limited edition TAIKOPROJECT 10-Year Anniversary photobooks!
Next Saturday, we hit the road for Indiana, making stops in Las Vegas, Nevada, Moab, Utah, Denver, Colorado, and Chicago, Illinois for workshops and just to hang out with taiko folks! If you happen to be near Fort Wayne, Indiana next week, check out our show at the Arts United Center!
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