Makoto Taiko

2012 Plans

2012-01-11T23:36:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!
Have you made your New Year's resolution yet? This year, our resolution seems to be: move forward! 2012 is the start of many new projects for us.

1) Makoto Taiko's annual concert! We are performing at Thorne Hall at Occidental College in Eagle Rock. It's the same venue as last year. We have already begun working to raise the quality of our performance for this concert. Come see the results of our hard work on June 2nd, Saturday! Time will be announced later on.

2) The biggest event for Makoto Taiko will be during this summer: we are going to Japan! We will meet and interact with other taiko groups in Japan, perform in a collaboration concert to raise funds for the Tohoku region relief efforts and of course enjoy the many wonderful aspects of Japanese culture. The taiko tour will be two weeks long from July 19th to August 2nd.

These two are Makoto Taiko's biggest events for 2012. Thank you always for your support and encouragement. Please continue to support us! よろしくお願いします！

Winding Down for 2011...? Naaah!

2011-10-20T14:09:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's already the end of October 2011! Fall is here and Halloween is right around the corner.

At the beginning of this year, we announced many exciting events such as the World Festival of Sacred Music concert and the release of our new DVD. Now, in the later half of the year, we are already planning for 2012 (and we have some BIG plans in the making!).

Our DVD is now on sale!
We will sell them at select performances as well as have them available at the following location:
Shumei America
2430 E. Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91107
Tel: (626) 584-8841
Hrs: Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm

You can call in and purchase a copy over the phone or come directly during business hours to pick one up! DVDs are $15.00 each (+$3.00 shipping fee if delivery is required).

For a brief preview of the footage in the DVD (professionally shot and edited by the amazing Kazu Domae), check out the Makoto Taiko trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMWQkmBF6I0

The World Festival of Sacred Music (WSFM) concluded on October 16th. For this wonderful 16-day event, Makoto Taiko performed a 1-hour concert at CSULA's World Arts Day on October 8th. We were the only taiko group to present a full solo concert during the festival. It was a great honor for us to share our taiko music and spirituality with an audience of roughly 800 people. Marudashi TV, a program that airs on UTB Hollywood 18, came to shoot footage of our concert. They previously visited one of our practices and interviewed several Japanese-American members for their program. You can see the complete 27-minute feature that was aired recently on Marudashi TV.
Marudashi TV is also in the process of airing the footage from our WSFM concert this week and next week. If you can view UTB channel 18, please tune in next Tuesday, October 25 at 7pm or 10:30pm!

This year has been full of great performance events for Makoto Taiko. It seems that more and more people are hearing about us and our focus on spirituality through "makoto."

Our next performance will be on October 30th, Sunday in Santa Monica for the 4th Annual Daniel Pearl World Music Days concert, a worldwide event held in honor of the American journalist who had been captured by Al-Qaeda in 2002 and subsequently beheaded.
Daniel Pearl World Music Days events are held in many cities throughout the world with the aim of using "the power of music to reaffirm our commitment to tolerance and humanity." If you are near the Santa Monica area, please join us at 2pm for this FREE special event at:
First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica
1220 2nd Street, Santa Monica, CA

We still have many exciting events coming up~! Stay tuned!

World Festivals and DVDs

2011-07-08T14:41:00.000-07:00

After settling down from the excitement of our annual concert, we have already begun preparations for our next biggest performance of the year: the World Festival of Sacred Music.

Makoto Taiko will perfo rm at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex at CSULA on October 8 from 5-6pm. This will be our second time participating in this wonderful festival event but our first time performing solo. Check out our website gallery to see photos of when we collaborated with Shakti Dance Company at the World Festival of Sacred Music to produce the Aum-Sho-Namah concert.

Makoto Taiko's big project for this year is creating a DVD of our concert performance. Kazu Domae is busy putting together footage from our annual concert last month and aims to have the DVD ready by late July. We got a sneak peek at the footage for this DVD and it looks amazing! Thank you Kazu! So make sure to order a copy of Makoto Taiko's DVD.

And lastly, a piece of advertisement:

MAKOTO TAIKO TRYOUTS

July 13, 2011
5:30-7pm
1465 Lincoln Ave. Pasadena, 91103
$10 per person, RSVP at puredrumsound@gmail.com
Wear comfortable clothing
Minimum age: 6 yrs
**This is NOT a selective audition. Our tryouts are opportunities for anyone to try taiko drumming and see if it is something they'd like to pursue. We welcome all experience levels!

Till next time,

Makoto Taiko

Thank you!!

2011-06-27T12:13:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, we had an absolutely amazing concert! Hours and hours of practice, stress and fixing errors paid off on an evening of taiko madness. The transitions were beautiful - many thanks to our special performers Yukiko Matsuyama and Claudia Tenorio w/ Walter and Kenn. Many audience members shared how fantastic and inspiring the whole concert was.

This is a photo of Makoto Taiko minutes before the doors opened for people to enter Thorne Hall. We were full of nervousness, adrenaline and excitement. I don't think any of us could really predict how many people were going to come. And surprise, surprise: it was a full house! Wow!!

Congratulations to everyone in Makoto Taiko! Many thanks to the wonderful volunteers who fed us, manned the reception desks, distributed tickets, sold merchandise, made and set up signs, basically saved the world, etc. Also, thank you to the staff and crew at Thorne Hall! Their spot-on lighting cues helped create the most professional concert we've ever had.

We are already receiving lots of performance requests for the rest of the year. Look for us at the World Festival of Sacred Music coming this October!

Feel the Thunder

2011-06-24T22:36:00.001-07:00

A poem from someone who was inspired by our performance at ArtNight this past May. Thank you! (Unfortunately, the original formatting of the poem cannot be viewed on this post...)

Feel the Thunder

Tim Callahan

Feel the thunder of the drums!

Feel the thunder of the taiko drums!

Pounding!

Resounding!

Pounding and resounding!

Pounding and pounding

like a giant’s heartbeat,

resounding in your chest!

See the drummers gesture,

as they strike their postures

Hear the cry

of the drummers

as they chant.

See the lightning

flashing like a saber,

flashing like a saber

as it rips through the sky!

Hear the lightning crackle

crackle as its fury

echoes through the sky.

Feel its white-hot fury

As it sears the earth!

Then feel the thunder

that rumbles through the hillsides!

Feel the thunder,

pounding like a hammer!

Feel the thunder hammer

like a titan’s heartbeat!

Feel the thunder hammer!

Feel the thunder hammer

As it shakes the earth!

Who is the Drummer

who thunders like a hammer?

Yours is not to question:

You’ll never get an answer.

Yours is but to savor

the power of the hammer:

Pounding!

Resounding!

Pounding and resounding

as it thunders through the sky!

So feel the thunder of the drum!

Feel the thunder of the cosmic drum!

Three Days till...!!!

2011-06-22T08:49:00.000-07:00

Ok folks, it's coming down to crunch time for Makoto Taiko! We are wrapping up with concert practices and rehearsals this week.

This Saturday, we are having our annual taiko concert at Thorne Hall in Occidental College. We will not only present our fantastic repertoire of modern and traditional taiko pieces, we have a NEW PIECE in the works by our very own taiko master, Koji Nakamura, Revelation. It will debut officially at our annual concert this Saturday. Don't miss this incredible moment!

One more exciting bit of news! We have finally, finally finished our new costume!! Thank you thank you to everyone who helped with this big project! This was no small feat--Makoto Taiko is now approximately 49 members strong. Forty-nine. Wow! We seem to be growing exponentially every year! It's a really great feeling when you can see all 49 members come together during a concert run-through...all these people from all stages of life, and forms of thought and belief, assembling for a common passion: Taiko.

So make sure to mark this down on your calendar:

SATURDAY, June 25
6:00pm (doors open at 5:30pm)
Thorne Hall
Occidental College
1600 Campus Rd. Los Angeles 90041

FREE ADMISSION

Donations gratefully accepted for the continued maintenance of our wonderful drums and the purchase of even better instruments.

2011: So much to do, so little time!

2011-01-22T15:14:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!
Its been a while since we updated our blog. New Year's resolution: update more often!

2011 is full of exciting projects and events for Makoto Taiko. Among our big projects for the year are 1) making new uniforms and 2) producing a taiko educational DVD. Both projects are already under progress and we're really excited to see the final product!
We are ordering custom happi for our new uniforms from happi.jp, a Japanese company based in Aichi Prefecture. The taiko educational DVD is a supplementary resource to our taiko classes for people who are interested in practicing outside of the dojo. Performances of Makoto Taiko's standard repertoire and general information about Makoto Taiko will be included in this DVD and we hope to have it available this year for anyone who is interested in purchasing it. Stay tuned for updates on these projects!

As for performances, we've been pretty busy since the beginning of this month. On January 2nd, we performed at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center in Little Tokyo for the annual Kotohajime.

For our next performance this coming weekend, we are going......to Kauai!!! If you're going to be on the island, check us out at the 7th Annual Kaua'i Wellness Expo 2011!

Even as 2011 has just begun, we are already looking ahead to big performance opportunities in the fall. We applied to be part of the World Festival of Sacred Music which will be held in Los Angeles this October. Hopefully we will be selected to perform at this wonderful event--keep your fingers crossed!

As always, you can keep up with our performances on the Events page of our website www.makototaiko.org.
Looking forward to sharing more exciting news with you this year!

Peace & Prosperity,

Makoto Taiko

10th Anniversary Concert

2009-08-31T08:26:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that just a little over a week ago, we all pulled together for the Makoto Taiko 10th Anniversary Concert!

Set changes and production went smoothly and we heard lots of positive feedback. The sound guy for the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse (Jason) said we were "slammin".

Once the pictures start coming in, I'll post them as a slideshow.

June 20th, 2009 4th Annual Makoto Taiko Concert

2009-08-14T06:15:00.000-07:00

Makoto Taiko on Twitter

2009-08-02T15:12:00.000-07:00

Click to tweet with us! Makototaiko@twitter.com

Less Than A Month Away!!!

2009-07-26T23:27:00.000-07:00

Our 10th Anniversary Concert is arriving quickly!

Members - PLEASE - proactively sell tickets!

Best places to leave flyers:

local libraries, local music schools + departments, corporate lunch rooms, and any location where you frequent, whether it is work, school, or recreation!

We have a Twitter account now! It's [makototaiko@twitter.com]

We have a new BLOG! It's [makototaiko.blogspot.com]

Please visit both sites and Tweet or comment on a blog!

Every member needs to muscle up on ticket sales!

To purchase tix, contact Sandy Snyder @ (626) 584-8841

Don! D-don-don-don!

Flyer for 10th Anniversary in August!

2009-07-22T19:38:00.000-07:00

Pic from 6/20/09 4th Annual Makoto Taiko Concert

2009-07-06T11:49:00.001-07:00

Makoto Taiko's 10 Anniversary Concert

2009-07-01T13:31:00.000-07:00

August 22 is the date of the Tenth Anniversary Celebration of Makoto Taiko, a concert featuring four-time Grammy Award® winner Paul Winter and Grand Taiko Master Seiichi Tanaka of San Francisco Taiko Dojo, as well as other special guest performers.

Our venue will be at the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse at 7pm - 9pm with an Intermission.

Tickets can be obtained through Ticket Alternative and the Makoto Taiko office at the Shumei Hall in Pasadena (626) 584-8841.

Ticket prices:
$25 (premium seating) with $5 discount for students and seniors (55+) - must show picture ID at venue window.
$20 (regular seating) with $5 discount for students and seniors (55+) - must show picture ID at venue window.