TaikoProject
Celebrated Japanese American drumming group TaikoProject celebrates its 25th anniversary with a special one-night-only performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, on Saturday, July 19, at 7 p.m.
The acclaimed group will be joined by Grammy-winning Chicanx band Quetzal, also from Los Angeles, and multi-instrument soloist Sumie Kaneko performing vocals and playing the koto and the shamisen.
Tickets are available at taikoproject.org or by calling (213) 268-4011.
TaikoProject was founded in 2000 in Los Angeles by a group of young, emerging taiko drummers, led by Bryan Yamami and Masato Baba. The group defined a modern American style of taiko, blending traditional forms with an innovative and fresh aesthetic. While the instruments themselves come from Japan, much of the energy as a performing art happened in the U.S. by groups like TaikoProject that elevated a folk art to a notable place of concert attractions.
TaikoProject first made waves when they became the first American taiko group to win the prestigious Tokyo International Taiko Contest in 2005, besting all of the Japanese taiko groups. Then, in quick succession, they were cast in a Mitsubishi Eclipse commercial, the first and only national advertising campaign to prominently feature taiko. Yamami and his company were the lead creatives on the campaign; later they were featured in both Nike and Target commercials.
Soon after, they signed with a touring agency, while increasing their Southern California concerts – performing first and regularly at The Ford (formerly the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre). Since then, they have performed at many of the premier performing arts centers in the country, including the Ordway Center (St. Paul, Minn.), Meany Hall (Seattle), Mondavi Center (Davis), Tower Theatre (Bend, Ore.), Hatfield Hall (Terre Haute, Ind.), Lied Center (Lincoln, Neb.), Gammage Auditorium (Phoenix), Cache Valley Center (Logan, Utah), Macey Center (Socorro, N.M.), and the Ferst Center (Atlanta).
TaikoProject also became one of the mainstays of the Los Angeles Music Center On Tour, performing for students and local community centers; these concerts have grown to as many as 100 shows annually.
The group has performed and recorded nationally and internationally with Stevie Wonder, Peter Gabriel, Hans Zimmer, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Squeak E. Clean, Sean Paul, Diplo, as well as international stars such as Greek singer Antonis Remos, Persian singer Mansour, Brazil’s Olodum, and the Netherlands’ Tiesto.
The group has performed for the 2009 Academy Awards, the 2011 Grammy Awards, the 2018 MTV Music and Movie Awards, NBC’s “The Voice,” Syfy’s “Face/Off,” “The X-Factor,” Lisa Ling’s “Take Out” (a Max limited series), “Conan,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” “The Late, Late Show with James Corden,” Ovation TV’s “The Art Of,” Food Network’s “Iron Chef Gauntlet,“ rock band 30 Seconds to Mars’ “Up in the Air” music video, Paramount Plus/MTV’s Clio and Telly Award-winning AAPI Heritage Month promotions, and at Ubisoft Forward 2024 for the “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” game reveal.
In 2021, the Ford Foundation, in association with the J. Paul Getty Trust and the California Community Foundation, recognized TaikoProject as one of “America’s Cultural Treasures.” The group was honored with the Visionary Award from East West Players in 2012.
In 2023, the ensemble was selected for the prestigious Western Arts Alliance Performing Arts Discovery (PAD) program, which promotes a selected group of U.S. performing artists to international programmers and festival directors. In 2024, they were invited to perform at the Coachella Festival with 88Rising’s Atarashii Gakko and at the iHeartRadio Music Festival that year. Last fall, TaikoProject was awarded a major three-year grant from the Perenchio Foundation because of “their proven track record of artistic excellence, community partnerships, and steady leadership.”
TaikoProject’s programs are made possible in part by funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, Los Angeles County Department of Arts & Culture, City of Los Angeles’ Department of Cultural Affairs, L.A. Arts Recovery Fund, Perenchio Foundation, MAP Fund (Creative Capital), Japan Foundation, Sansei Legacy Fund, Toyota Giving Circle, AAPIP (Asian American/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy), James Irvine Foundation, Union Bank Foundation, as well as annual BaseBeat donors.
Guest Artists
Quetzal is a relentlessly innovative Grammy award-winning ensemble that narrates the social, cultural and political stories of humanity. Describing the bands influences, Dr. Alex Chavez states, “You hear students of Chicano rock, rhythm and blues, JB funk, Cuban batá, punk, and Motown soul. You hear a band that has cut its teeth organizing, that has worked to fight forms of oppression in the communities they are connected to. And in pursuit of forging these creative and political bridges, you hear artists who are at the epicenter of the transnational world of son jarocho.”
Quetzal’s live shows are filled with moments of tenderness, fervor and vivid storytelling that transport the audience into a world of affirmation and belonging. They have graced stages across the U.S., Canada, Asia and Mexico for nearly 26 years. Recognized by notable institutions such as the Library of Congress and The Kennedy Center, the traveling exhibit “American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music,” sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution, featured Quetzal as leaders and innovators of Chicano music.
This feat coupled with their Grammy-winning album on the Smithsonian Folkways label, “Imaginaries” (2013), marks the importance of their past and ongoing work. The relevance of Quetzal’s music and lyrics has been noted in a range of publications, from dissertations to scholarly books. Most recently and as a testament to the body of music and community work Quetzal has accomplished on and off the stage, in the summer of 2017 Long-time member Martha Gonzalez’s tarima (stomp box) and zapateado dance shoes were acquired by the National Museum of American History and are now on permanent display.
Sumie Kaneko is a New York based Japanese artist. A master in the traditional repertoire of ancient instruments, she has also pioneered their use in jazz and experimental music, through solo and group performances worldwide. She is renowned for her ability to collaborate with a diverse array of visionary international artists: Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel, Yo-Yo Ma and The Silk Road Project, composer Evan Ziporyn, taiko artists Kenny Endo and Kaoru Watanabe, and tabla player Tanmoy Bose.
In 2021, Kaneko performed a shamisen solo for American Ballet Theatre’s season opening, with the principal dancers Isabella Boylston and James Whiteside.
Her career started in 1995 as a winner of the Takasaki International Competition in koto performance. In 2002, after graduating from Tokyo National University of the Arts, she moved to Boston and studied jazz vocal at Berklee College of Music. She has performed at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Blue Note NY, TED talk, Google, Getty Center, Boston Ballet, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
As an educator, Kaneko has lectured at large colleges and universities: Harvard, Columbia, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton, Wellesley, and in 2021, she lectured at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo as a renowned international artist.
She also tours overseas as a cultural ambassador, has performed in over 20 countries and has worked closely with the Embassy of Japan. In South Asia, she has visited many nonprofit organizations for street children to encourage future education. In 2018, she expanded her career in Europe, and in 2021, she performed in Hungary, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Her passion is always towards original and new compositions, and she has released two albums. Her second album, “Dead of the Night” (iTunes), has been well received for its unique and exquisite sounds. Currently, Kaneko is composing a suite for traditional instruments, to collaborate with various styles of artists.