First, we present different styles of solo Taiko performances. Ryota Kataoka, who previously played for the Zotos events, and Isaku Kageyama, a professional Taiko drummer from Boston, will give solos and duo performances in different styles. Second, we present how Taiko fuses with Jazz. Ryota and Yuko Yamamura, a notable Jazz French Horn player from NYC, perform as a duo called Ajarria. It is one and only duo of Taiko and Jazz French Horn player. Since their release of first CD last year, they have appeared at a lot of musical events in NYC and Japan. Yuko is also a notable composer and is the grand prize winner of 2012 John Lennon Songwriting Contest. At our concert, she will perform the winning song “Rove Over” with Ryota and Marc Wagnon, a great vibraphonist from NYC. At the end of concert, audiences will experiences a harmonic mixture of Taiko, Jazz French horn and vibraphone mix together.
This is also a BENEFIT CONCERT for 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami relief. Last two years, a lot of people have gradually regained their normal life in the affected areas. Although the physical living environment might have been restored, many of them are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. My mother-in-law is a director of Tohoku Gakuin University Counseling Center, which is located in the center of the affected area, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. Despite their own difficulty, she and her team have provided psychological therapy to the local community since the day after the disaster. To support their activity, we will donate a portion of profit from this concert to the counseling center.
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