News

July 2008

Another year has flown past - I must be getting old.

It's only July but we've certainly packed the action in already. We're all feeling in need of massages and hot spas as we rest on the laurels of two huge, successful events.

Late February saw a 10 day visit by 2 young professional drummers from Japan. Their trip was arranged to coincide with the first ever New Zealand taiko festival which Wai Taiko hosted here in Hamilton (see Festival page for more details and photos)

Riichi Yamauchi and Kenji Furutate wowed us all completely and made the taiko festival something really special with their unbelievable energy, presence and skill.

Six taiko groups from around New Zealand participated in workshops with the pros and then contributed to a massive show which concluded with over 50 drummers on stage playing a history making finale piece which literally blew the audience away.

Almost as soon as the festival was finished and we were feeling the anti-climax, the opportunity to be a part of "Ignition" (Hamilton fringe festival) made us prick our ears up. This was to be an even bigger challenge performance-wise than the taiko festival since we would be doing a full 2 hour show without any supporting acts.

After nearly 2 months solid and intense practice it all came together and A Taste of Japan was born. Making the most of the talents within the group, the show is an exciting explosion of taiko drumming, fue, chappa, kane, koto, sanshin, traditional dance and song.

We're now able to catch our breath a bit before things heat up again.

In the 2nd half of last year we did away with the yearly introductory workshops and replaced them with casual workshops where the public could come along and try taiko in a fun, casual atmosphere. These went so well we are continuing them this year and we used the same format at Tirau Weekend of Workshops (WOW).

July 2007

Well, what an exciting year!
Michelle, the other Great Leader returned to Hamilton after 2 years "sabbatical" in Ireland and Auckland and has taken up the reins with gusto. Subsequently we have been spending hours discussing our vision for Wai Taiko.

Our two main goals for this year are to branch out into instruments other than nagadodaiko and shime and to up our performance standard.

We've started achieving the first goal by spending some of our hard earned money on katsugi okedaiko, an eisa drum and 2 chappa from Kyoto's Taiko Centre. We dusted off the kane we owned but hardly ever used (so noisy!) and with the pleasant discovery that some of our members were learning fue (some of them VERY secretly) gradually we're moving to a more traditional sound. However it is only baby steps for us with only 4 hours practice a week and half of that usually taken up prepping for performances.

We're very excited to begin working on the second goal with the help of professional drummer Kevin Man from the prestigious TaikOz of Sydney. Kevin is coming to visit us in August and we hope he will whip us into shape.

And in September we'll be receiving a visit from Toshiaki Kono from Kotaro of Shikoku. The group visited us at Christmas time and we loved their energy and obvious enjoyment in their playing so we asked if Kono-san would come back and teach us one of their funky songs. Apparently he likes NZ beer so he consented to return.

In other news, Yurika Arai and family have return to Hamilton bringing some awesome taiko experience with them - Yurika trained with Gun-daiko in Kyoto for the two years that they were stationed there. She has kindly taught us a song called Sanshi Suimei, an original composition by Riichi Yamauchi, director of Matsurishuu which has a lovely fue part that Alistair plays. Alexander is joining the party by playing shime on a number of songs for us too. And I'm sure that Sascha is waiting in the wings too.

We've just started our annual round of beginner workshops which in contrast with last year are so popular that we're having to run two streams.
And we also ran a one day workshop in Raglan recently which was kindly funded by the Raglan Arts Council.

So all in all it's been a positive year so far with everyone working hard to achieve our goals.

October 2005

Currently in our 6th year, we have lost many of our originals to other countries or cities, but we are nurturing the new generation and are still performing in the community with spirit. August saw a 4 week workshop specifically for recruitment and Wednesday beginner practices are subsequently progressing well. No annual concert this year but plenty of performances were to be seen including the high profile Great Race and one of the best audiences in our memory packed into the Hamilton Gardens piazza at the Summer Festival in February. Matt Scheurich has developed a new logo (with input by other members) which was voted on and has now been printed on new t-shirts as performance costumes but also for sale to our adoring fans. Mike Vallabh sorted out our website host woes and David Hamilton's creation is alive and kicking. Now all we need is business cards, a promo video, new drums, large mirrors for our practice room, more bachi, more new songs, a big bus...