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Our performance in Brattleboro was great fun and we have many people to thank. First of all a big thank you goes out to Todd Roach and the Loft for presenting us at the New England Youth Theater. I was blown away by the community of world percussionist that Todd has nurtured in Brattleboro. It’s great to see the arts thrive in smaller more rural communities. Another great big thank you goes out to Patrick Cooperman of Cooperman drums for letting us stay at his beautiful home in Grafton. Cooperman drums makes some of the best frame drums around and his house is full of great antique drums… a drummer’s paradise.

Finally a huge thank you goes out to Patrick Graham for coming down and playing with us. Patrick should be familiar to On Ensemble fans and he has a new solo CD coming out soon called “Rheō“. I got a chance to hear some of the tracks on “Rheō” and they sound amazing. Patrick has a series of CD release concerts coming up in Montreal so check them out if you are in the area:

“Rheō“ - A concert series marking the release of Patrick Graham’s first solo CD, featuring guests Ben Grossman (hurdu-gurdy & electronics), Kaoru Watanabe (fue & flute) & Tomomi Morimoto (contemporary dance)
January 22nd-23rd
8:00pm
MAI, Montreal arts interculturels
Montreal, Quebec

Our next performances will be on the East Coast. We’re heading to New York for the annual Association of Performing Arts Presenters Conference. We have two showcases:

Saturday Jan 10th, 6:55pm
Sunday Jan 11th, 11:05pm
Lincoln Suite, 4th Floor, NY Hilton

On our way out to New York we’ll be stopping in Brattleboro for a performance at the Loft on January 9th. After the conference we’re headed to Boston for workshops with Odaiko New England then back to New York for a performance with Kaoru Watanabe at Drom.

Patrick and Kaoru are two of our favorite musicians and collaborators. They are both featured on our live CD “Ukiyo” and on our new upcoming studio album “Ume in the Middle”. “Ume in the Middle” will be released 3/3/09 but we’ll have pre-release copies at both of our East Coast performances.

Just added a new performance date! We’ll be joined by New York based Western and Japanese flute specialist Kaoru Watanabe. On Ensemble fans will recognize Kaoru as a frequent collaborator and amazing musician. Should be a great performance. Tickets are $15 and are available now at: 212 777-1157 or at the Drom website.

This weekend we’ll be performing with Mu Daiko at the Ritz Theater in Minneapolis from Friday November 21st through Sunday November 23rd.  Mu Daiko was one of the first On Ensemble supporters.  Back in December  of 2003 they brought us to Minneapolis as guest artists for their annual concert series.  Michelle was still with us we didn’t tour with a drum kit or a turntable and the koto was used for only one piece: Gengakki and even that has changed drastically since then.  We’re looking forward to hanging and performing with Mu Daiko again!

Mu Daiko with On Ensemble
November 21-23rd
Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm Sunday at 2:00pm
Tickets: $25 students/seniors, $27 general
Buy tickets by phone: 612 436-1129 or online

During the week Kris, Maz and Kelvin will be headed up to Winnipeg to lead workshops for our friends up in Winnipeg Hinode Taiko.  I’m unfortunately going to miss the Winnipeg trip and will miss Mr. Ono’s amazing butterfish sushi and famous tuna, avocado and grapefruit salad.

Today Maz and Kelvin hit the road with a van packed full of equipment to Minnesota! On November 15th we’ll be performing at the College of Saint Benedict Saint John’s University’s Humphrey Theater in Collegeville then we’ll be performing with Mu Daiko at the Ritz Theater in Minneapolis November 21-23rd. In between the two performances we’ll be heading up to Winnipeg for workshops with Hinode Taiko. It should be a fun little tour provided we don’t get stuck in bad weather. We’ll be making posts from the road so keep checking back!

Whew… We just finished our annual home concert and have many people to thank. A big thank you goes out to Johnny Mori, the Japanese American Community and Cultural Center and the great staff at the Aratani Japan America Theater. Thank you to Kevin and Travis our great sound guys and a HUGE thank you goes out to our great lighting designer Eileen Cooley for all of her work! A big thank you goes out to our FoundatiOn Team who helped us set a new fund raising record this year and to all of our fans who came out to the show!

Also a special thank you goes out to Kris’ sensei Kineya Katsuyukie for coming all the way from Japan to be a part of our show and finally congrats to Kris for receiving his natori! We all very proud of Kris!

Our concert is tomorrow!! Apparently there has been some confusion with the ticket website. For a while it was indicating that our concert was sold out but there are still tickets available! Everything should be okay now but you can always call the JACCC box office directly and there will be tickets available at the door.

We had a great run through tonight and we’re really excited about tomorrow’s performance. As a special treat we’ll have some pre-release copies of our new album “Ume in the Middle” available at the concert!

We had a great time performing at the Oceanside Public Library’s 2008 World Music Series! It was a great sounding theater and a great audience. A big thank you goes out to Kristine, Deborah and the Friend’s of the Oceanside Public Library for their help in bringing us to their community.

Also thank you to everybody who came out to see our performance. It was especially nice to see members of UCSD Asayake Taiko at the performance. We connected with Asayake Taiko at the Collegiate Taiko Invitational this year. On Ensemble was paired with Asayake Taiko for a master class session and we were particularly impressed with their energy and eagerness to learn and improve. Also a shout out to Stanford Taiko’s Elle who keeps showing up at On Ensemble events this summer!

Stanford Taiko went on a massive three week tour with the Stanford Symphony Orchestra, Stanford CHamber Chorale, Stanford Choral Union and the St. Lawrence String Quartet early this summer. Stories and pictures from the tour are featured in this month’s Stanford Magazine. How cool is that? I know I’m starting to sound like an old man but back when Kris and I were in Stanford Taiko there were no international tours and we had to haul drums 300 feet in the cold California winters just to practice…