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Sam, the director we’ve been working with, has finished “Yamasong” a short animated film based on our track of the same title.  He’s started submitting it to film festivals and it’s already been accepted to the World Music and Independent Film Festival in Washington, DC and the Florida Film Festival.  We’ve also set up a website for the film and will be producing a DVD soon!  We’ll be posting more news about “Yamasong” and where it will be showing soon!

Kenny Endo is celebrating his 35 years of being a taiko pioneer with a big concert at the Aratani/Japan America Theater on Saturday April 3rd at 8:00pm and we’ve been invited!  We’ll be appearing as guest artists along with Kinnara Taiko, Kaoru Watanabe (taiko and fue), Wu Man (pipa), Abe Lagrimas (percussion), Derek Nakamoto (piano) and June Kuramoto (koto).  I goes without saying that Kenny Endo has been a huge influence on our band and it will be an honor sharing the stage with such a great roster of musicians!

This week were are headed all the way up to Bellingham Washington for a couple of educational programs for kindergarten to 6th grade students.  This will be our second time going to Western Washington University and we’re looking forward to returning to Bellingham!

Our next performance will be in at the University of Nevada Reno.  We’re performing Thursday March 4th at 7:30pm at the Nightingale Concert Hall.  Tickets are $24 for adults and $12 for youth and can be purchased through the University of Nevada Reno’s website.  If you know anyone in the Reno area help spread the word!

We just finished adding new functionality to OnEnsemble.org! You can now share anything you find our website easily across the entire spectrum of social media outlets. At the bottom of each post and page you’ll find the “ShareThis” button which will allow you to post an update to pretty much any social media site you can imagine.

The big news is that we’ve completely revamped our Music page!  You can now listen to any track from any one of our albums and we’ve updated the music page with pretty much every live recording we have.  The live mp3s are even free to download!  In fact please download them because our sever isn’t really set up for streaming and this whole thing is a bit of an experiment.  More website updates coming!

Thanks to the generous contributions of 102 donors, the FoundatiOn Team has reached our 2009 goal of $10,000! We had an inspiring spurt toward the end, along with some of our largest donations ever, pushing the grand total to $11,445.51!  We did it!  YOU did it!

Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone!

You made Works in Progress, and eight, brand-new taiko compositions possible!

You have also brought taiko to dozens of public school students! As promised, On Ensemble will be providing 10 hands-on taiko workshops, free of charge to Glassell Park Elementary School!  For the past few months, we have been working with the principle to structure the program to provide maximum benefit to the 4th and 5th grade classes.  On Ensemble is extremely excited to help bring more arts education to public schools.  Did you know that California elementary students receive 35% less music and visual arts instruction than the national average?!  Thank you to the FoundatiOn Team for helping us do something about it!

From me personally also… thank you, thank you.  I am extremely moved by the incredible support On Ensemble receives.  Multiple times during the fund drive I found myself choked up, totally inspired by your generosity.  It means the world to me that so many of you value On Ensemble’s music, our efforts in the taiko world, and our work in the larger community.  Thank you, thank you.

Works In Progress ’09 is done!  As usual we have many people to thank starting with our amazing guest artists Russel, Jeanne, Kaoru and David.  Another huge shout out goes out to Yoko for making us sound good and to our great volunteers Courtney and Tomomi, and Hiroka for cooking dinner for the crew!  Thank you to all of our friends, family and fans who sold-out the show and helped make this year’s Works In Progress our most successful to date.

Thank you to all of our FoundatiOn Team Donors!

We are close to our goal of $10,000! Read more here!

Witness the debut of On Ensemble music!  New instruments join the On Ensemble mix, including gamelan gongs and home-made electronic drums, in never-before-seen compositions by each of the group’s members.  Artistic risk-taking and experimentation lead the way in On Ensemble’s most important performance of the year.  With special guests Russel Baba and Jeanne Mercer (Maz and Shoji’s first teachers) of Shasta Taiko and David Wells!

On Ensemble Presents: Works In Progress ’09
A concert of all new works featuring Russel Baba and Jeanne Mercer

December 12, 2009, 8:00pm
The Miles Memorial Playhouse
1130 Lincoln Blvd, Santa Monica, CA  90403

Tickets: $25 available online at: Brown Paper Tickets or by phone at: 1-800-838-3006

FoundatiOn Team fund drive now underway! 

Help us reach our goal of $10,000!  Read more here!