Ohio State nav bar

IJS Event: Kenny Endo Ensemble, "The Art of Taiko – History, Cultural Background, and Demonstration"

Kenny Endo
April 14, 2022
12:45PM - 2:00PM
Sullivant Hall Collaboratory (141)

Date Range
Add to Calendar 2022-04-14 12:45:00 2022-04-14 14:00:00 IJS Event: Kenny Endo Ensemble, "The Art of Taiko – History, Cultural Background, and Demonstration" The Institute for Japanese Studies, East Asian Studies Center, Center for Ethnic Studies, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, EMIC: Graduate Student Interest Group for Expressive Culture, Graduate Music Student Association, Japanese Graduate Studies Association, and the Percussion Club at Ohio State present:  "The Art of Taiko – History, Cultural Background, and Demonstration" featuring Kenny Endo Taiko Abe Lagrimas Vibraphone, drums, ‘ukulele Kaoru Watanabe Japanese bamboo flutes (nohkan, ryuteki, shinobue), Western flute, taiko Sumie Kaneko Koto, shamisen, vocals and Sean Shibata Percussion of the Kenny Endo Ensemble Abstract: With their deep experience in taiko performance in Japan and the U.S., Kenny Endo and members of his ensemble will speak to taiko’s cultural and historical contexts and its evolution as an art form both in Japan and globally through demonstration of instruments and styles of drumming. Celebrating his 45th Anniversary in taiko (Japanese drumming), Kenny Endo stands at the vanguard of the taiko genre, as one of the leading personas in contemporary percussion and rhythm in North America and in Japan. For 45 years, he has led the way in this Japanese style of drumming in the U.S. and will celebrate with his 2022 tour “Breaking Through Tradition to Innovation: Kenny Endo’s Taiko Journey.” As a jazz percussionist and early innovator in Japanese taiko, Kenny Endo’s adventurous spirit stretches the taiko genre incorporating influences like funk, jazz, Afro-Cuban, and Hawaiian, with roots firmly grounded in tradition. With 45 years of performing and touring, he continues to lead the way in this Japanese style of drumming. His performances are nuanced, brilliant, exciting! Endo has received numerous awards and accolades, including special recognition in Japan—he was the first non-national to be honored with a “natori,” a stage name, in Japanese classical drumming and is still esteemed in Japan today. He has won numerous awards, was a featured artist on the 2005 PBS special “Spirit of Taiko” as well as several film soundtracks (including Coppola’s Apocalypse Now), and was honored by the National Endowment for the Arts for American Masterpieces. https://www.kennyendo.com/ https://pasifika-artists.com/kenny-endo/ Sullivant Hall Collaboratory (141) East Asian Studies Center easc@osu.edu America/New_York public

The Institute for Japanese Studies, East Asian Studies Center, Center for Ethnic Studies, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, EMIC: Graduate Student Interest Group for Expressive Culture, Graduate Music Student Association, Japanese Graduate Studies Association, and the Percussion Club at Ohio State present: 

"The Art of Taiko – History, Cultural Background, and Demonstration"

featuring

Kenny Endo
Taiko

Abe Lagrimas
Vibraphone, drums, ‘ukulele

Kaoru Watanabe
Japanese bamboo flutes (nohkan, ryuteki, shinobue), Western flute, taiko

Sumie Kaneko
Koto, shamisen, vocals

and

Sean Shibata
Percussion

of the Kenny Endo Ensemble


Abstract: With their deep experience in taiko performance in Japan and the U.S., Kenny Endo and members of his ensemble will speak to taiko’s cultural and historical contexts and its evolution as an art form both in Japan and globally through demonstration of instruments and styles of drumming.


Celebrating his 45th Anniversary in taiko (Japanese drumming), Kenny Endo stands at the vanguard of the taiko genre, as one of the leading personas in contemporary percussion and rhythm in North America and in Japan. For 45 years, he has led the way in this Japanese style of drumming in the U.S. and will celebrate with his 2022 tour “Breaking Through Tradition to Innovation: Kenny Endo’s Taiko Journey.” As a jazz percussionist and early innovator in Japanese taiko, Kenny Endo’s adventurous spirit stretches the taiko genre incorporating influences like funk, jazz, Afro-Cuban, and Hawaiian, with roots firmly grounded in tradition. With 45 years of performing and touring, he continues to lead the way in this Japanese style of drumming. His performances are nuanced, brilliant, exciting! Endo has received numerous awards and accolades, including special recognition in Japan—he was the first non-national to be honored with a “natori,” a stage name, in Japanese classical drumming and is still esteemed in Japan today. He has won numerous awards, was a featured artist on the 2005 PBS special “Spirit of Taiko” as well as several film soundtracks (including Coppola’s Apocalypse Now), and was honored by the National Endowment for the Arts for American Masterpieces.

https://www.kennyendo.com/

https://pasifika-artists.com/kenny-endo/

Free and Open to the Public

If you require an accommodation, such as live captioning, to participate in this event, please contact EASC at easc@osu.edu. Requests made at least two weeks in advance of the event will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date. 

This event is supported by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center.