The Year 2004 in Review

2004 was a busy performance year for Sonoma County Taiko. As well as running ongoing classes for kids, teens and adults, the group appeared 27 times in Sonoma and Napa Some of the year’s highlights included 4 parades (Sebastopol Apple Blossom, Santa Rosa Rose Parade, Calistoga Cinco de Mayo and Calistoga Silverado Parade), 10 school events, and 8 festivals including the annual Teriyaki BBQ & Bazaar at Enmanji Temple. That’s an audience of about 100,000 people!

“the audience was deeply moved by the powerful message of taiko drumming. The event was very successful, but the people were most impressed with your drumming.” ~Kiyo Okazaki, Petaluma Library

Sonoma County Taiko has been growing by leaps and bounds this past year and I am happy to say that the classes are doing very well. The new students are progressing rapidly. We have great plans for the upcoming year. Those plans include changes to our schedule, adding new classes, having guest instructors, writing and practicing new songs and preparing for our 10^th Anniversary Concert in October.

The curriculum committee has suggested a restructuring of classes and the addition of a new class. My hope for the new schedule is that we will develop a more cohesive, dynamic group that will blaze into our 10^th year. We are continuing with our quarterly Adult introductory workshops that are drawing in really great people. The Beginning class has been working very hard. The Beginning class curriculum will be expanding. We will be adding new forms and songs to the class repertoire.

The NEW Intermediate class will be working very hard on getting up to speed on our repertoire. This class is going to be learning all of the roles for all of our songs and will be expected to be able to perform those positions.

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