A 3-hour special looking at the history of AIRMW's Tsukasa Taiko program – the largest, most active community ensemble taiko group in the midwest with both community and professional presence. With special guests Edward Wilkerson Jr. (Chicago), Michael Zerang (Chicago), JoVia Armstrong (California), Melody Takata (Chicago), Chizuru Kineya (Japan), Takane Umeya (Japan), Hyakkyo Fukuhara Japan); Wesley Hitomo Yee from GenRyu Arts and Colin Wong, Nicole Sumida, Mariko & Kailani Yu, Randall West, Noriko Sugiyama, Kioto Aoki & Kiyomi Negi of Tsukasa Taiko.
The seventh installment of our AIRMW livestream welcomes current ensemble and alumni drummers who have been with Tsukasa since the founding of our group. Featuring intergenerational dialogue and a look back at our 25-year history highlighting the achievements pioneered by Tsukasa in the Chicago Japanese/Asian American scene.
Episode 05 is another Shubukai program presented by AIRMW’s three Fujima Grandmasters. The discussion focuses on one of the classic Nagauta dances “Sanbaso,” accompanied by archival footage and a live performance exploring the path from training to the stage. Special guest Koryu Nishikawa joins us live from Tokyo.
Tatsu Aoki curates AIRMW for HotHouseGlobal featuring musicians, academics, and artists from AIRMW's national and international network. With GREX [Karl Evangelista & Rei Scampavia] (San Francisco), Chizuru Kineya (Tokyo), John-Carlos Perea (San Francisco), Chihsuan Yang (Los Angeles), Scott Oshiro (San Francisco), Edward Wilkerson Jr., Tsukasa Taiko (Chicago).
The fourth installment of our AIRMW livestream goes “behind the curtains” of Tsukasa Taiko’s annual winter concert Taiko Legacy at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. We will introduce never-before-seen footage, special photos, and a full breakdown of our process as we prepare our largest production of the year. This will be a true virtual VIP backstage pass to everything that unfolds off the Tsukasa Taiko stage.
Tatsu Aoki curates AIRMW for HotHouseGlobal featuring musicians, academics, and artists from AIRMW's national and international network. With Antonin Hoang (France), Yuko Fujiyama (NYC), Helen Nagata (San Diego), Matsuya Nozawa (Japan), Kiyomi Negi & Kioto Aoki (Chicago), Hiroshi Mehata (Japan), Yoko Reikano Kimura (New York), Ayaka Nakama (Japan), Jason Finkelman & Joy Yang (Champaign,IL) & members of the SKYLANDING Project.
Tatsu Aoki curates AIRMW for HotHouseGlobal featuring musicians, academics, and artists from AIRMW's national and international network. With Yuko Oshima (France), Natsuki Kubo (Japan), Tom Lee (Chicago), Jen Shyu (New York), Mari Fujihira (Japan), Da Wei Wang (Chicago), Francis Wong (San Francisco), Jia-Ling Hsu (Taiwan) Yoko Noge (Chicago), Jeff Chan (Chicago), Melody Takata (San Francisco)
Tatsu Aoki curates the first AIRMW for HotHouse program featuring musicians, academics, and artists from AIRMW's national and international network. Inaugural episode featuring John Cheng (New York), Russell Jeung (San Francisco), Mai Sugimoto (Chicago), Jon Jang (San Francisco), Rami Atassi (Chicago), Byoung Kim (Chicago), Lenora Lee (San Francisco), Jonathan Chen (NYC), Shubukai (Chicago), and Tsukasa Taiko (Chicago).
The third installment of our AIRMW livestream gives access to the very rare, behind the scene episodes of Shubukai, AIRMW's Japanese classical dance troupe. The episode will feature archival footages and a live performance revolving around the Nagauta piece: Shiokumi. We discuss the preparation that goes into the presentation of a single dance, and what each dancer focuses on perfecting prior to stepping on stage.
The second installment of our AIRMW livestream features Tsukasa Taiko’s premier performance unit National Gintenkai Project members. Young adult performers from Chicago and San Francisco’s GenRyu Arts join to discuss the revival of 1970’s Tokyo experimental theater music, cross-city collaboration, and their personal experience as an active taiko player.
The inaugural episode features established artists from Chicago and Tokyo in a premiere program introducing AIRMW's core performance art ensembles, Tsukasa Taiko (Japanese drumming) and Shubukai (Japanese classical dance). Both groups keep an active schedule with over combined 100 showcases a year, and for the first time ever broadcast via a virtual full-concert presentation highlighting the motivation behind AIRMW's mission statement.
