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.
