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Mark H Rooney Taiko

Taiko Instructor & Performer

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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

Choosing to Hit a Taiko by Jim Barnds

06.03.2020 by Linda Lombardi //

Writing about taiko feels wrong.

On my first attempt to start writing about drumming, I realized that formalizing my thoughts or verbalizing the experience (beyond the occasional kiai) seems fundamentally misdirected.  My core experience of taiko is visceral, and to the extent that I’m in my head during practice, it’s generally not useful to anyone other than myself.  It’s usually not much use to me, for that matter. Those thoughts often take the form of self-recrimination: “Why am I tuning out after the third line?” or “I wish I had found more time to run through this section on my own last week.”  I have many consciously-formed thoughts, but I don’t know how much of it is purely about the drumming versus the intrusion of leftover concerns from work; frustratingly incomplete to-do lists from home; or vestigial irritation from encounters with lane-crowding drivers or wide-sitting metro commuters.  Taiko is sufficiently enmeshed in the fabric of my life that it’s hard to neatly separate that experience from the rest.  There are other folks far more deeply entwined than I am, so perhaps my experience is transitional.

My next instinct is to segue to a Dave Berry-esque train-of-consciousness ramble that attempts to capture my experience of drumming as I’m drumming. Why is hitting a taiko drum so utterly satisfying?  And allow me to emphasize “utterly.” As in “Oh yeah.”  Not the “Oh yeah” that comes out with an ascendant breeziness; I’m talking about the one that rumbles in your chest and comes out with that deep, resonant bass that could start an avalanche. When I’m playing, that satisfaction almost immediately transitions to need, as in “I want to do that again, right now.”  I don’t know what the drum is vibing with, all I know is that it is good. If we sometimes struggle to be heard in the world, this drum is the antidote.  The drum will reward you generously for even a fairly-good hit.  I don’t know that I’ve ever hit a drum perfectly, but I can’t wait to find out what that’s like.

So why do I choose the hit the drum? It’s not an angry experience. The drums never did anything to me. I hold them perfectly innocent in all of this.  If anything, the drum is a partner, like that smart horse in the old westerns that somehow shows up in the right place to allow a quick getaway when needed, that doesn’t flinch when you jump onto its back from a second-story window.  More than that, though, the drum is a translator.  It converts the energy of exertion into communication.  Wherever that energy originates, the drum can turn it into something better.  Frustrations can be re-channeled into something cathartic and even useful.

That’s where it gets interesting. When that energy starts reforming into something external, it can take on a different character. What might have started as annoyance can shift into exuberance. When expressed in concert with others, that inward focus can alter to communal fun. If done even half-right, it even sounds pretty good. Playing three-quarters right would probably feel awesome.  I want to find out.  For me, for now, the best I have are flashes of “pretty good” and that’s enough to pull me back for another round. Giddy-up!

Categories // Taiko Voices Tags // community, taiko, taiko communication

A message from Mark H

03.31.2020 by Mark H //

Warm (though distant) Greetings, Everyone!

I am somewhat without words for the moment. I was caught as off-guard as anyone when the world shut down and I went from trying to figure out a line-up for a busy season of performances to trying to figure out which groceries have the best shelf life.

As I come to a place of acceptance, I still harbor the need to provide … SOMETHING for my students, my taiko family and the broader community. Largely, I have the MOST inefficient skill-set to face the “current abnormal” (I refuse to call it the “new normal” as it implies both longevity and business-as-usual!). But, luckily, I am surrounded by people with amazing adaptability and energy for moving forward. Inspired by those people, I am determined to do what I can.

A few quick updates…
  • Intro Workshops for April 19th and 26th are both CANCELLED. We will be sure to get new workshops scheduled as soon as  we can get back to the studio!
  • The Tsuru For Solidarity March and Rally set for June 6th is POSTPONED. We’ll share the new date for this event as soon as it has been set (May not be til Summer 2021, but stay tuned)
  • CONNECT 2020 is currently STILL SCHEDULED for August 1&2. There is of course the possibility that it will need to be postponed, but that discussion is still a few weeks out as we all wait to see how the world changes. In the meantime, deadlines for early registration and full refunds are extended indefinitely until we have more information.
For the time being…

I will work on my virtual game! I am fortunate to have not only a huge backlog of videos from recitals, performances, etc. that I can share, but also space in my house where I can play taiko AND a garage where I can make drums and stands. I also have the materials to make at least a dozen taiko on hand and MANY drums that need re-heading! I intend to put all these resources to work for the duration and be ready to come out on the other side of this pandemic SWINGING (a bachi… at a large drum. I’m not a fighter!)

Please stay connected!

Even though we can’t be together in person, the Mark H Taiko School lives on!

  • Check out our newly-hatched Taiko Voices blog featuring members of the Mark H Taiko community from long-time players to newer students!
  • Visit my YouTube channel for past performances by my students, Miyako Taiko and others (with exponentially more content coming soon!)
  • Follow me on social media: I’m MarkHTaiko on both Instagram and on Facebook
  • And, of course, feel free to explore my website – there are quite a few items to discover!
And stay tuned!

I will do my best to keep y’all up-to-date as we generate new content online and plan for the future. In the meantime, everyone please take care of yourselves and loved ones, continue to connect at a responsible distance and show your support for all those on the front lines – medical care workers and other essential fields. Try to patronize local businesses and services much as you can. And, if possible, show some love for your favorite artists and entertainers to make sure that we all have a vibrant world to return to once we all get through this crazy time.

Be Well, Stay Strong, Move Ahead,
— Mark H

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If you’d like to support The Mark H Rooney Taiko School and its various future programs, please consider a donation of any size. Greatly appreciated!

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@MarkHRooney

Categories // Updates Tags // community, DC, taiko

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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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