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January 2009
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Akemashite Omedetōgozaimasu!
 Happy New Year!Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble thanks you for your support. It has been a while since our last newsletter, but we'd like to start off the new year by sharing what we've been up to and telling you about our exciting plans for 2009. Over the past couple of years you have seen us perform at a diverse range of venues, from "Runaway Moon" at SomArts Cultural Center, to "TAIKO X2" at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts. You may have seen us outdoors at the Yerba Buena Garden Festival or caught our revision of "Indra's Net" at the WaveWave Dance Festival. We've also performed full concerts on tour. But we have not performed a repertory concert for our local audiences for some time, so we are excited to do so this year. Our big projects for 2009 include a tour to Japan in February, our home season concert in May at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, and the creation of our first DVD. Read on for more about each of these.
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 What's Happening with SYTE
Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center
presents TEN
Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble in Concert
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts
May 22 and 23, 2009
Time flies when you're having fun and so it feels for Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble (SYTE) as we enter our 10th year of performance in 2009. We proudly will bring our signature style to the MainStage at the beautiful Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts on May 22nd and 23rd, 2009 in a concert simply titled TEN.
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 Throughout the past decade SYTE has established itself as one of the innovative taiko companies in the Bay Area scene and beyond. Our music has been described as "elegant and subtle, at times spare and simple, at other times complex, multi-layered... a live performance is even richer and more nuanced and exposes the full beauty of the arrangements and choreography, visuals and props, movement and expression." The traditional art of taiko drumming has come a long way from its ancient roots in Japan. SYTE in particular strives to push this art form onto new plateaus, from "lushly orchestrated melodies played on woodwinds" to "choreography derived from modern dance moves." For SYTE, "the drums serve as gentle augmentation to hypnotic melodies, but other songs see the drums cut loose unfettered, speaking loudly and joyously." From the very first strike of the drum the audience anticipates each song that tells a new story -- from high energy to quiet stillness to zany antics, absolutely never a dull moment.
Featured in TEN will be our noted guest artist, vocalist and Native American drummer/ percussionist Jane De Cuir, with whom we have had the honor to collaborate on many occasions during our first ten years. In addition, debuting in their first concert performance with SYTE, will be the multi-talented, dynamic taiko artists Debby Kajiyama and Yukiyo Takaishi. This will be one of the rare opportunities to experience a full-length SYTE performance in the Bay Area and will surely prove to be a memorable one.
TO PURCHASE TICKETS FOR TEN:
ONLINE: www.mvcpa.com
PHONE: 650-903-6000
Ticket office located at 500 Castro Street, Mountain View, CA 94041
DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE FOR SENIORS, STUDENTS, CHILDREN AND GROUPS OF 10 OR MORE PLACE YOUR AD TODAY:
Help support TEN by placing an ad in our concert program!
FOR DETAILS CONTACT SYTE: email us - (510) 835-9155 |
Japan Tour |
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Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble will head for Japan in early February. This will be the first time for Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble to travel to Japan as a group.
SYTE has been invited by Kanazawa University to perform at Akabane Hall in Kanazawa (February 7) and Wajima Cultural Hall in Wajima (February 8).
Our performances will be part of a larger exploration on how traditional arts change and evolve in contact with other cultures, and how that can be harnessed to help revitalize rural areas. |
SYTE'S DVD | | As many of you know SYTE has been involved in an ongoing planning process to shoot a DVD of our work. This process as you can well imagine is a complicated endeavor both financially and creatively speaking. Our desire to break new ground in regards to interpreting our music through the video media offers us a wide variety of options for expression. We've chosen to shoot a two-part DVD consisting of PART 1: select pieces of our upcoming 2009 "TEN" concert and
PART 2: a more artistically expressive series of short vignettes of SYTE's colorful repertoire.
The series of vignettes offers a far more open ended "storybook like" platform. Thus a more difficult challenge for us is to decisively interpret each song, draw and storyboard each individual vignette and finally to shoot and edit each vignette into a meaningful and connected body of work. We feel we finally have many of our ideas in place and have our team of videographers, sound engineers and editors in mind. SYTE also will need a volunteer crew to help make the shooting process easier and more exciting. If you have any interest in helping this project along, please contact Kallan Nishimoto at 415-939-0182. Above all, please support any of our fun fundraising events, concerts and bake sales (just kidding about the bake sale) or simply donate giant bucks to the project! Every dollar counts towards our $20K goal to finish the DVD by the end of next year (2009). Thanks!!! |
| Taiko Classes and Workshops
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| Head instructor Jimi Nakagawa is interested in expanding the current (8 year old) taiko educational program of SYTE. We currently have three classes: Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced for teens/adults and are interested in expanding the program to include multiple Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced classes for teen and adults, kids classes, an after school kids program, a few specialized classes and workshops taught by various SYTE members on "Basic Taiko Fundamentals", "Introduction to SYTE Music" and "Basic Taiko Movement and Form of SYTE's Repertoire" and a few other new class offerings and expansions currently in the works. Check our website for schedules!
In order to expand the program we need a larger building to accommodate the expanding program. A list of the requirements is as follows:
1. Soundproof or isolated building in industrial area?
2. 1000-1500 square feet
3. Minimum ceiling height - 10 feet
4. Rent $800 (great) - $1200 a month (difficult)
5. Restroom
6. Wood, carpeted or concrete floors (in order of preference)
7. Decently safe neighborhood
8. Storage for drums
9. Access to public transportation
10. Off street parking
11. Onsen If you have any leads in this regard please contact either of us at:
Hiroyuki "Jimi" Nakagawa - head instructor - Email >>
Kallan Nishimoto - assistant teacher - Email >>
The list of requirements are listed in the order of importance. Obviously the first 5 are absolutely essential, the other six we may be able to implement a few work arounds. Classes - If you are interested in taking taiko lessons please email head instructor Jimi Nakagawa for information and available openings.
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Donations to SYTE
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Please donate to SYTE projects:
Online on our website - Click the "Make a Donation" button
Download our Donation Form
Mail directly to: Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble
934 Brannan Street San Francisco, CA 94103
Believe it or not, 2009 will mark the tenth year in SYTE's short life but a milestone nonetheless. So to celebrate that auspicious year, we will be producing a full evening concert titled TEN at the stunning Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. More details await you in the newsletter so please feast your eyes -- it will be, as one reviewer described one of our performances, "an evening of transcendence". We would like to share a few performance highlights of our first ten years below:
2000: Collaborations with choreographers Robert Moses and Sara Shelton Mann and first Satsuki Festival 2
001: Collaborations with choreographers Sue Li-Jue and Alleluia Panis and our first Home Season Concert at Dance Mission Theater, Out of the Box
2002: Také 5 Concert with Master Shakuhachi Artist Masayuki Koga, plus collaborations with Jane De Cuir, Van Anh Vo and Unity Nguyen and the US/Japan Taiko Festival
2003: First Pacific Northwest Tour to Oregon and Washington plus first Southwest U.S. Tour
2004: Chains of Color Concert with Robert Moses’ Kin plus George Lucas Ranch
2005: Tsunami Relief, Japanese Chamber of Commerce, Oakland Museum, and Percussive Arts Society
2006: Pacific Northwest Tour to Idaho and Oregon and Southwest Tour to Utah, Colorado and New Mexico plus Runaway Moon Concert and collaboration with Minette Mangahas, Jeannie McKenzie and Tommy Wong
2007: Collaboration with ON Ensemble at Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts
These are only a few of the many events of our first decade and we hope to add many more accomplishments over the next ten years. But to do so we need your help more than ever before during these bleak economic times. We believe that people crave art and music in their lives to provide hope and inspiration to bring about the kind of world we all desire to create and sustain. If taiko and SYTE have touched your life and uplifted your spirit, please give us a financial boost. Our goal is to raise $20,000 to produce and videotape our TEN concert next May. All we need is 2000 people to donate $10 and we’ll be there! Thank you for your continued support of our artistic vision. We remain committed to bringing a fresh approach to the art of taiko while still preserving its inherent beauty and integrity in the U.S. and beyond.
With gratitude in the spirit of taiko,
Naoko, Ellen, Jimi, and Kallan
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SYTE'S 2009 Fundraiser
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 2nd Annual Royal Poker Tournament of Champions
Saturday, March 7, 2009, 7:30pm
Download Flyer for Poker Tournament >>
Info Call (510) 835-9155, visit taikoensemble.com
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TEN Ways to Support SYTE
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| 1. Place an ad in our "TEN" Concert program. Learn more >>
2. Donate money to SYTE for our DVD project. Learn more >>
3. Bring TEN friends to our "TEN" concert. Learn more >>
4. Donate musical instruments and/or equipment .
5. Donate studio space or help us locate one.
6. Take taiko lessons from our taiko school. Learn more >>
7. Become a sponsor or patron of SYTE. Learn more >>
8. Throw a fundraising event for SYTE (we will help!).
9. Help us create a "My Space" page.
TEN. Purchase our CD "Out of the Box" and/or pre-order our DVD.
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Charles Griswold, Lighting Designer
| |  If you've ever attended a SYTE theater performance, one of the most memorable aspects of the show is the dramatic lighting design. This type of visual treatment has become such an integral part of SYTE's performances that it seems to be a living element that heightens each mood and drumbeat in the show. Of course this magic does not just happen by itself. Behind the scenes, Charles Griswold is the man responsible for literally showing us the light and bringing our show to life.
Charles has been SYTE's lighting designer for our home season concerts since 2003 as well as touring with us in 2003 and 2006 through Utah, Oregon, Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico and Southern California. At times Charles has worn numerous hats at once besides creating the stunning lighting looks: he has been our technical director, stage manager, office manager, photographer, videographer, correspondent and travel documentarian to name a few. We are extremely grateful for his unlimited energy, many talents and contributions through the years and we look forward to working with him again for our TEN concert next May. Charles lives with his wife Dominica and sons Devin (16) and Sirague (13) in San Francisco. He co-owns and operates with his three partners, The Little Giant Lighting and Grip Company: www.littlegiantlighting.com |
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| SYTE Mission Statement/Artistic Statement
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 Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble (SYTE) was founded in 1999 to explore and develop works that incorporate taiko (Japanese drumming) with other types of performance art.
Named after one of the most beautiful cherry blossom trees in Japan, Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble is inspired to balance the sensitive and elegant aspects of taiko playing with the strong and powerful. SYTE is comprised of four multi-faceted and classically trained artists who work with theater and dance as well as with other musicians from diverse musical backgrounds.
Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble brings a new perspective to the art of taiko by focusing on modern compositions and visual motifs that step outside the mainstream.
SYTE endeavors to pursue our mission of creating work that not only crosses barriers but simply reminds us of who we are as human beings. We also feel an obligation as taiko "elders" to present a worthy example of this art in the quality and integrity of our work. To do so we count on you, our many supporters, to help sustain us and allow us to nurture the next generation of taiko. |
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please reply to this email with "DELETE" in the subject line.
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- APICC Presents TEN
