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Mark H Rooney Taiko

Taiko Instructor & Performer

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Next up in our Meet the Artist series: Michelle Fujii & Toru Watanabe!

01.11.2021 by Heather Mitchell-Buck //

Michelle Fujii & Toru Watanabe

Thanks to everyone who has joined us for our VIRTUAL Meet the Artist events featuring Yurika Chiba and David Wells! It has been amazing to see so many members of our taiko community (both here in the DC area and from farther afield!) gathered on Zoom. We’ve had a blast with these awesome artists as they have played some of their favorite pieces, shared works-in-progress, discussed their influences, answered audience questions, and more.

We are excited to announce the next event in this series featuring our CONNECT 2021 instructors! Help us keep the CONNECT spirit going until we’re all able to get together safely in person once more – join us for an evening of performance and conversation on Zoom.

These are FREE concerts, but you will need to register since there are a limited number of virtual seats available.

Next up …
Michelle Fujii & Toru Watanabe (featuring Unit Souzou ensemble!)

Unit Souzou

Saturday, January 30, 2021
8:00pm EST

More info

WITH ONE MORE GREAT EVENT NEXT MONTH!

We’ll wrap up this awesome series with Ryo Shimamoto in February 2021. Stay tuned – all the details on that will be coming your way soon.

Categories // Performances Tags // CONNECT 2021, Meet the Artist

Mark H Taiko’s First Online “Meet the Artist” by Lee Blank

12.08.2020 by Linda Lombardi //

Building community and supporting other artists are founding principles of the Mark H Taiko experience, so it came as no surprise that Mark H. Rooney would quickly pivot to online offerings during the pandemic. I’ve had the great privilege to study taiko with Mark in his Takoma Park community classes since early 2014. Since then I’ve gotten to play in community with others, perform in festivals, attend fantastic concerts and study a wide variety of techniques in workshops with guest artists. This “former non-musician” even built her own drum!

But for me, by far the best Mark H offering has been the amazing Meet the Artist events. Mark has brought some of the greatest taiko artists in the world to share with us, in an intimate, small-group setting. In the last few years I’ve had the great joy to hear from and see performances by Shoji Kameda, Kaoru Watanabe, Tiffany Tamaribuchi, Marco Lienhard, and Kenny Endo, and to learn Obon dance from Noriko Nakamura.

Since being bitten by the taiko bug, I follow lots of taiko folks online, and in the fall of 2019 I was excited to hear about a Kickstarter campaign for HERbeat. If you aren’t familiar, HERbeat was an amazing all-women taiko project, culminating in a concert and making-of movie project. I quickly donated and have followed the project with great interest, so imagine my delight when Mark announced that one of the HERbeat artists, Yurika Chiba, would be our first virtual “Meet the Artist” guest.

Yurika plays with San Jose Taiko and her infectious enthusiasm is incredible.  She’s also a talented, whimsical artist and creator of TaikoCat. Logging on to her Meet the Artist event, I was happy to see so many familiar, and new, faces on the Zoom screen, playfully toasting with Kombucha, cider, or tea.  As always the event felt intimate and was a perfect combination of personal introduction/background and experiential participation. We learned a lot about Yurika’s journey to taiko and art. She led us in a flash-card guided movement exercise that was ideal for the Zoom platform.  She also shared philosophy on cue cards. One that particularly resonated with me was “the fullness of life is incubated in its messy places.” Indeed.

The audience participated in a good and wide-ranging Q&A session, finally getting the definitive answer to the question “Does Canadian money smell like syrup?” (Depends on what you had for breakfast). My only regret was not being able to see, hear, and feel Yurika play in person. I’ll hold out hope for that to happen in future.

If you have the opportunity to join a future “Meet the Artist” event, don’t miss the chance. These are the “cream of the crop” of performers and teachers in the taiko world, brought to your virtual doorstep, by a kind and generous man who helped introduce me to my inner drummer.

To sign up for the next online Meet the Artist with David Wells, click here.

Categories // Performances, Taiko Voices, Uncategorized Tags // community, Meet the Artist, yurika chiba

Our next Meet the Artist Virtual Concert!

12.04.2020 by Heather Mitchell-Buck //

Thanks to everyone who joined us for our first-ever VIRTUAL Meet the Artist event in November with Yurika Chiba! It was great to see so many familiar faces from our local taiko community as well as new and old friends from farther afield!

We are excited to announce the next event in this special series featuring our amazing CONNECT 2021 instructors! Help us keep the CONNECT spirit going until we’re all able to get together safely in person once more and join us for an evening of performance and conversation on Zoom.

These are FREE concerts, but you will need to register since there are a limited number of virtual seats available.

Next up … David Wells!

David Wells

Sunday, December 20, 2020
8:00pm EST

More info

WITH MORE GREAT EVENTS COMING SOON!

Next up is Unit Souzou in January 2021 and Ryo Shimamoto in February 2021. Stay tuned – all the details on those events are coming your way soon.

We can’t wait to hear these awesome artists play some of their favorite pieces, share works-in-progress, discuss their influences, answer audience questions, and more – and we hope you can join us!

Categories // Performances Tags // CONNECT 2021, Meet the Artist

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Meet the Artist Series

meet the artist

Join world-renowned taiko artists in an informal, intimate … read more

Taiko Voices

Mark H Taiko’s First Online “Meet the Artist” by Lee Blank

December 8, 2020 By Linda Lombardi

Building community and supporting other artists are founding principles of … [Read More...]

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Events & Workshops

Sat 30

Meet the Artist: Michelle Fujii & Toru Watanabe of Unit Souzou

January 30 @ 8:00 PM - 9:30 PM
United States

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Random Acts of Taiko

THIS SATURDAY at 8 PM EST! Mark H Taiko presents a THIS SATURDAY at 8 PM EST! Mark H Taiko presents another in our virtual “Meet the Artist” series - featuring Michelle Fujii and Toru Watanabe AND Unit Souzou ensemble! #virtualMeettheArtist #MHTpresents #unitsouzou
Happy New Year! Look - shiny and new! A new year n Happy New Year! Look - shiny and new! A new year now and... nothing is different... Still a pandemic, still political ridiculousness, still unemployed. But somehow, I have a sense of optimism for the future! Forward and forward, 2021!! #forwardandforward
“...it’s been emotional...” Trying not to lo “...it’s been emotional...” Trying not to lose the hard-learned lessons of this year but really ready to move forward. #2020weOUT
Our small Christmas crew befits our little Holiday Our small Christmas crew befits our little Holiday Celebration. Wishing everyone near and far a Happy, Healthy and Peaceful Holiday Season and Hopeful 2021 - From Kristen, Mark, Roxie, Bella, and Rocket #randomactsofliving #HolidaySeason2020
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About Mark H

Mark H Rooney studies, performs, and teaches taiko: a dynamic form of full-body drumming based in Japanese tradition. Mark combines that traditional foundation with a modern sensibility to create performances and classes that are full of energy, endurance, and excitement!

Interested in bringing taiko to your school, organization, or event? Contact Mark H. Mark will work with you to tailor a workshop or performance to meet your needs…
#randomactsoftaiko

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