My First Taiko Performance by Irina Kiel

I’m a small business consultant in the area of accounting, strategy planning, and growth. I’m originally from Russia but have been living in Northern Virginia for almost twenty years. My fascination with Japan started around the year 2000 when I was lucky to visit the country as part of a program for young professionals studying the market economy in Japan.

I fell in love with Japan and everything Japanese, and I used every opportunity to learn more about Japanese culture and visit every possible event related to Japan. One of these was an impressive (and loud) taiko performance by a group from Japan, at one of the biggest concert halls in Moscow.

I was immediately captivated by Japanese drumming. While I don’t remember the group’s name, I recall that they were exclusively male, and I felt sad then that I would likely never try to perform this music myself. Little did I know…

Fast-forward nearly twenty-five years to the night before my first taiko performance in March two years ago. I almost didn’t sleep at all out of nervousness. In fact, this was my first stage performance ever! I kept reassuring myself throughout the night that I had learned the rhythm and choreography perfectly, constantly reminding myself that if the bachi flew out of my hands in the middle of a performance, I could easily take a spare and continue. My excitement and anticipation had no bounds.

In the morning I rushed to DC by metro. Driving wasn’t recommended since our performance took place in the heart of DC near the Washington Memorial as part of the Cherry Blossom Festival. There was also a kite festival taking place there, drawing crowds of people. The weather was pleasantly warm and sunny. As we were assembling our drums onstage, we caught a breathtaking view of the Washington Monument with colorful kites surrounding it. We stopped for a moment to take a group photo, and cheered with a loud kiai.

The Sakura Taiko Festival lasted an unbelievable six hours, with our rec class performing second, followed by professional taiko groups from all over the East Coast. We performed a piece called “Sakura Bayashi.” Due to my excitement I almost don’t remember how I performed, nor do I even remember whether Mark (who conducted us during rehearsals and gave small sound cues to change lanes) was onstage. The acoustics also surprised me. During our class rehearsals our drums sounded deafening, but here I could barely hear them due to the open air. Nevertheless, everything seemed to go well. My family and friends who had attended informed me later that we sounded great. We also received compliments, clapping, and cheering from other musicians who were performing after us.

Following our performance, I stayed to watch others play and to help the organizers with various tasks. Our taiko school was the host of the festival, and we did everything we could for the convenience of our guests.

I arrived home in the evening exhausted though excited, with such an adrenaline rush that I found it difficult to disconnect and relax. As I spent that evening watching last year’s videos from a similar festival, I realized that I was just at the very beginning of my taiko journey and that there are seemingly limitless growth opportunities in taiko possible for me and for anybody who is interested, in terms of the type of drums, their position, and the way they are played.

Three years ago I was just a random spectator at a similar festival in DC and didn’t even imagine that I could be on stage! It took me some courage to sign up for the Introductory Taiko class and the Recreational Taiko series to learn the basics and have a chance to perform. Since then I’ve taken the Recreational Taiko class series five times and started to learn odaiko, and I definitely plan to continue being a taiko player. For me, it is not only the opportunity to express myself, and a way to connect with my inner voices, but also great physical activity, exercises for my brain and memory, anti-stress practice, and of course a privilege to share some time, space, and rhythm with amazing people. I’m so happy that I’ve made my long-time dreams come true in this art! And I’m no longer afraid of dropping the bachi!