Odaiko New England performing in "Taiko 10"

Hi,
With a humble apology for not posting sooner. I owe you all about 37 1/8 posts' worth of entries, so I won't dally.
To return to this year's North American Taiko Conference (yes, more than a month later I'm still absolutely soaring off that experience), Odaiko New England had the good fortune to be selected for the Conference's "Taiko 10" concert. This concert is intended to give 10 groups a chance to perform for their taiko friends & peers - for ten minutes each.
We were really thrilled to be chosen...but then we had to think about "what can we play?"
11 of us were attending the conference, and there was no question of performing anything without all 11 of us. However, individually we possessed varying degrees of repertoire, skill sets, and so forth, making the song choice(s) no simple task. Complicating this further is the question, "What can we play that shows our capabilities best?" We could have played "Mahora", which would've filled the 10 minute slot nicely, but that song doesn't feature some of the dramatic choreography that makes taiko so visually compelling.

Mark (our Artistic Director) settled on an arrangement of a familiar (well, familiar to taiko players young and old) piece, "Shin-En". This arrangement has a little power, it has a little style, and there's enough going on to make it entertaining. To add some flair, Mark brought in a ringer, former Ondekoza member Marco Leinhard, to ply his virtuoso shakuhachi and fue skills on our behalf and help stretch the piece to about 8 or 9 minutes in length.

Great!

So, on Friday evening, August 7, we're decked out in our very cool new happi coats, awaiting our turn (next to last) and watching the other taiko groups strut their stuff.

After awhile, we're noticing that some of the groups play for much longer than 10 minutes.

After awhile, we're noticing that some of the groups play outstanding taiko.

Professional-grade taiko.

Some of the soloists (especially members of Maze Daiko) are truly exceptional performers.

{uh-oh}

And we have to follow all that.

{gulp}

Determined to play our best & have fun, we went for it.
Somewhat inexpertly, but with a lot of enthusiasm.
For proof, check out this video link to the Taiko 10 groups' performances (an ironic thing about this is that there were...actually....9 groups for this concert. Not sure how that came about) and see for yourself how we fared. :-)

http://www.scruffyfilms.net/taiko10/Taiko10/Taiko_Videos.html

(note: special thanks to Kathy Fuller & San Diego Taiko for filming it all, and to Elaine Fong of Maze Daiko for providing us with the link!)

Oh yes, as an extra note: a few of my friends who have already seen the video of Odaiko New England have found it amusing that I, the biggest guy in the group, played the smallest drum, the shime-daiko, for this song. ( ! )

A great weekend at the 2009 North American Taiko Conference!

I'll try not to get carried away by my enthusiasm while I write this...

Got back just before midnight yesterday from the taiko conference. 11 of us from Odaiko New England attended - more than half our group! (In the days prior to the conference, 3 of my fellow Community Members attended the 3-day Summer Taiko Institute (STI for short) led by ON Ensemble - after hearing about it, I wish I'd attended that as well...) We had a GREAT time there...the workshops and instructors were truly excellent, the taiko playing was inspiring, energetic, and also challenging (some of the other groups out there kick major ass - there's just no more direct way to phrase it). Some highlights from the 4 days - I'll go into more detail later:

Thursday - some 495 taiko players were in attendance, besides volunteers, observers, photographers and staff. Registration went smoothly, and in the afternoon many of us participated in the Leadership Forum. A very good discussion of some of the challenges and 'larger questions' many groups face. This was followed by the welcome reception/potluck dinner - kudos to the taiko players who prepared all that delicious food! One taiko group performed afterward, then there was a fun jam with players rotating in and out based on their # of years playing (i.e. 0-5 years began, then 6-10 years rotated in and so forth).

Friday - Opening Session, a really fun Taiko Games session presented at lunchtime, led by Kris of ON Ensemble, Workshop Session 1 (I attended Western Notation for Taiko Players, taught by Meg Suzuki of San Jose Taiko), a special video tribute to Daihachi Oguchi, the first Japanese taiko master to introduce the concept of kumi daiko (ensemble drumming), and the Taiko Ten concert. More on THAT soon - because I performed in it!

Saturday - Workshop Session 2 (I attended All-Around Musicianship, taught by Eien Hunter-Ishikawa), then I parted ways with some hard-earned income for various and assorted taiko goodies at the Taiko Marketplace - so many vendors with cool merchandise to beguile and tempt us taiko'ers! After lunch there were discussion groups; I sat in on 'Studying & Performing Taiko in Japan'. That discussion group was incredible - it deserves a special blog post all of its own. This was followed by Workshop Session # 3 (I attended the terrific WRISTS!, taught by Adam Weiner of San Jose Taiko). Odaiko New England members gathered to take Tanya out for her birthday (this effort was coordinated & planned by her daughter Jadelyn), then we headed back for the incredible Taiko Jam concert (more on that later - some phenomenal performances!!).

Sunday - Closing Ceremony and the group photo. I saved my purple member's Odaiko New England tee for Sunday, and it turned out to be a wise decision - as Mark observed, because of my height, size and wearing a purple tee, I served as a beacon for any of the other members lost in the crowd.

More to come, but I just had to get an overview posted now. NATC '09 was such a great experience & I met so many cool people. What an affirmation of taiko!