About the artists
Tatsu Aoki was born in Tokyo, Japan as a son of traditional music/performance family. Associated with Tokyo Underground Arts movement in the 70's and moved to United and is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute. He is an educator, filmmaker, and prolific composer/ bass player working in a wide range of musical styles, ranging from traditional Asian music and jazz, to creative free and experimental music. He is founder and artistic director of Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival, which debuted in October 1996, and in 1999 was named president of San Francisco-based Asian Improv Records (AIR), notably producing the label's Grammy Award-nominated Far East Suite (AIR0053) the same year. Named one of 2001's "Chicagoans of the year" by the Chicago Tribune, Aoki is a prolific recording artist of his own compositions as solo bassist and in duet, trio, and large ensemble collaborations with artists such as Fred Anderson, Von Freeman, George Freeman, Wu Man, and Jeff Parker. He holds positions at both the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Northwestern University, where he teaches courses on Asian American art practices.
Mwata Bowden is director of Jazz Ensembles at the University of Chicago and former President and active member of Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Though his internationally acclaimed musical achievement and awards, Bowden had benchmarked the most important role in Chicago's Asian American music scenes. He was the first Jazz musician to collaborate with Tatsu Taiko in shamisen performance, and an original member of MIYUMI Project and frequent collaborator in JASC Tsukasa Taiko projects. Bowden has received the Outstanding Artist Service Award for dedication to children through music, recognition in Downbeat magazine's annual Critic's Poll from 1990 to 2003, and the 1994 Arts Midwest Jazz Masters Award. His project Sound Spectrum strives to reflect the energy and musical heritage of Chicago as well as the ongoing legacy of great Black music.
Jonathan Chen is active in the Chicago improvisation music scene and also works in installation, composition, performance, and video art. One of his current projects, Platform, is a component within a larger research project linking the philosophies of Marcel Duchamp and Friedrich Nietzsche and involves the installation of a slowly moving platform in a space. Chen's work has been performed or installed nationally and internationally. He has collaborated with many artists including Anthony Braxton, Flux String Quartet, and Alvin Lucier among others. He received his M.M. in violin performance from Northwestern University in 1999. In 2006 he completed his Masters in music composition at Wesleyan University, and he is a Doctoral candidate in Electronic Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy.
Amy Homma is second generation Japanese American and assuming leadership of JASC Tsukasa Taiko from the founder, Hide Yoshihashi, at the end of 2008. In 1990 she joined Waka Daiko to explore her Japanese cultural legacy, later joining Tsukasa Taiko. She is recognized by her Chicago Japan American generation for a dedication to traditional Japanese art forms, notably as a core taiko and shamisen instructor and performer for JASC Tsukasa Taiko. She has performed on Tatsu Aoki's Basser Live II and as part of his MIYUMI Project for the concert Big Band: Origins of Now in Millennium Park. In 2007 Homma performed in Poland as part of the Malta International Theatre Festival. She is studying Toyoaki Ozashiki shamisen under the instruction of Aoki, and Japanese classical dance with Fujima Ryu of Chicago.
Chizuru Kineya is a Nagauta shamisen artist and an accredited master of the instrument from the legendary Kineya Shamisen family, starting her studies at the age of six. She performs in the mainstream Japanese music and performing arts scene in addition to making regular appearances at the National Theater of Japan. She conducts workshops for regional schools and popular media to educate the general public of the nearly 400-year history of shamisen tradition, and has collaborated with numerous contemporary classical musicians. The 11th annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival marked her US debut and first collaboration with artists of the Chicago Blues tradition.
Satomayu Kineya is a frequent collaborator of shamisen master Chizuru Kineya and exploring a new education of Nagauta and traditional shamisen music. A graduate of Tokyo University of the Arts, she is shamisen instructor at Sankei University in Tokyo and leads several Nagauta shamisen ensembles as part of a dedication to the advancement of traditional music education.
Dohee Lee is from Korea and has Masters from Korea Art University in Korean dance and music. A resident of the Bay Area, she is an active percussionist, dancer, vocalist in both the traditional and contemporary Asian American art forms. She is resident artist and instructor of the Korean Youth Cultural Center, a community-based organization focused on Korean arts. She has performed at the Ethnic Dance Festival, the Dance Is Festival, and the Asian American Dance Performance series. Her performance project FLUX garnered critical acclaim in performances at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Lee has collaborated with many leaders of the Asian American creative arts scene, and guest percussionist for JASC Tsukasa Taiko's debut CD.
Jason Matsumoto is a fourth generation Japanese American and was introduced to taiko as a member of the Midwest Buddhist Temple's Ho Etsu Taiko youth group under the direction of his parents. While studying at the University of Washington, Matsumoto performed with a group local to the Seattle area called Tsunami Taiko. Since returning to Chicago, he has assumed the role of director of Ho Etsu Taiko and is a frequent collaborator with JASC Tsukasa Taiko and MIYUMI Project.
Fujima Shunojo is founder and artistic director of Fujima Ryu of Chicago, which observed its 30th anniversary in 2006. Before carrying the legacy of Japanese classical dance as practiced by Tokyo's legendary Fujima Ryu (school/style) to Chicago, Fujima Shunojo taught in Tokyo for several years. He appears internationally and throughout the Midwest, performing in major venues, college and university campuses, such as Tokyo's National Theater, the Chicago Cultural Center, Orchestra Hall, and the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2005, Fujima Shunojo became a resident artist at the Japanese American Service Committee of Chicago, helping to establish the JASC as a leading center for Japanese and Japanese American cultural arts.
Melody Takata is founder and artistic director of San Francisco's Gen Taiko and progressive arts organization Gen Ryu, and has been performing for more than twenty years in Japan and the US. She grew up in the rich traditional arts environment of the Japanese American community of Los Angeles, learning at age eight odori (Japanese dance) at the Nishi Hongwanji as part of the obon festival ritual (festival honoring ancestors). From age twelve to twenty she had formal study of Nihon Buyo (Japanese classical dance) at the Fujima school under Madame Fujima Kansuma. From age thirteen to eighteen she studied shamisen with the Kineya school. At age fifteen she began studying and performing with Los Angeles Matsuri, and five years later traveled to Japan to study and later perform as a member of Tokyo's O Edo Sukeroku Taiko, one of Japan's most highly renowned taiko ensembles. Since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1988, she has also performed with San Francisco Taiko Dojo.
Hide Yoshihashi was born in Glen Ellyn in 1978 and is founder of JASC Tsukasa Taiko. At age eleven, he moved to Japan and joined the school marching band, soon after which he was drawn into the world of taiko. Yoshihashi studied the northern taiko style of Hokkaido (the northern island of Japan). Returning to Illinois, he became a member of Chicago's Waka Daiko, led by John Sagami. In 1996 Yoshihashi left the group to form Tsukasa Daiko, later to become JASC Tsukasa Taiko in partnership with Asian Improv aRts Midwest and the Japanese American Service Committee. Yoshihashi is an original member of Tatsu Aoki's MIYUMI Project, a leading taiko player in the Midwest, and performs internationally. His debut CD of taiko music in 2006 was the first to be produced in the Midwest.
JASC Tsukasa Taiko
JASC Tsukasa Taiko
is the leading taiko ensemble in the Chicago area. Basing its operations out of the Japanese American Service Committee of Chicago, JASC Tsukasa Taiko's mission is to preserve and pass on the traditional concepts of taiko as a cultural legacy and to utilize these concepts in expanding and evolving the taiko form. Dedicated to building community and being a leader in the taiko drumming culture of the Midwest, it maintains a national profile by presenting public performances across the country throughout the year.
JASC Tsukasa Taiko has performed at the Smithsonian, San Francisco's Yerba Buena Gardens, the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Chicago Jazz Festival, and Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art among many other national cultural institutions. It presents classes, workshops, lectures, and demonstrations on taiko performance and its role in Asian and Asian American culture. Taiko classes are organized quarterly throughout the year for all levels of experience, for ages five and above. For more information, please visit www.tsukasataiko.com or www.taikolegacy.com.
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