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Mark H Rooney Taiko

Taiko Instructor & Performer

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Our 4th Meet the Artist Virtual Concert: Ryo Shimamoto!

02.06.2021 by Heather Mitchell-Buck //

We have had A BLAST at our virtual Meet the Artist events so far this winter, featuring Yurika Chiba, David Wells and Michelle Fujii and Toru Watanabe! It has been amazing to see so many of you gathered on Zoom 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 final 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.

Last (but NEVER least) in our series…
Ryo Shimamoto!

Ryo Shimamoto

Friday, February 19, 2021
8:00pm EST
More info

We’re wrapping up this awesome series with the one and only Ryo Shimamoto! Don’t miss the chance to be part of the last of these four awesome events with our CONNECT instructors!

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

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

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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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Random Acts of Taiko

TONIGHT!! In less than 7 hours, (at 8 PM Eastern S TONIGHT!! In less than 7 hours, (at 8 PM Eastern Standard Time, tonight, Friday, 2/19) - Ryo Shimamoto takes to the Meet the Artist screen! Please register ahead of time: https://www.markhrooney.com/event/meet-the-artist-ryo-shimamoto/ See you soon!
Just THREE DAYS!! Feb 19th, 8 PM EST, join us for Just THREE DAYS!! Feb 19th, 8 PM EST, join us for our fourth virtual “Meet the Artist” featuring the (intended) Artists of CONNECT2020! This one is close to my heart as it features my remarkable teacher and taiko-brother Ryo Shimamoto @jdryo!  As it will be Saturday morning in Japan (where he is joining us from), Ryo is recommending lemon tea but also encourages pear cider (which he can’t find in his area but we got him hooked on back at Kristen’s and my wedding...!) Pull up a sofa, set up a viewing device with good sound and get your drink on as we #MeetTheArtist this Friday! #MarkHTaikopresents  https://www.markhrooney.com/event/meet-the-artist-ryo-shimamoto/
Our very first INTERNATIONAL “Meet the Artist” Our very first INTERNATIONAL “Meet the Artist” event features Ryo Shimamoto @jdryo , my teacher from Wakayama, Japan! I can’t BEGIN to convey how excited I am for this - Ryo is not only a talented taiko teacher and artist but is also an endlessly engaging taiko-talker! See you Feb 19, 8 PM EST (Eastern Standard Time - please check for local time). Space in LIMITED so sign up today HERE: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYld-iurj0qHdVyTh_3ufvvyD-rk9FgNtDG  #markhtaikopresents #MeetTheArtist #withryoshimamoto
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
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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…
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