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Whew! We made it back to Los Angeles in one piece. Happy to report that the trip up to Wyoming was quite a success! After our two performances in Pinedale we drove through a snow storm to get to Gillette. On Monday we performed two lecture demos at Paintbrush Elementary School then on Tuesday we played a morning show for local 7th graders followed by a concert that evening. We had a great turnout for the evening performance and many of the students that we performed for earlier came to the concert with their parents in tow. Huge thank you to the great staff at the Cam-plex Heritage Theater for brining us out to Wyoming. This marks the second year in a row we’ve had mid January tour out to the Northwest. Hopefully we’ll make it three in a row next year!

We’ve been having a good Wyoming tour thus far. On Wednesday we left Los Angeles early to make it to Salt Lake City for a workshop. Then on Thursday we drove from Salt Lake City into Pinedale Wyoming. Luckily for us the weather was beautiful. On Friday we started the day with a educational performance for the students of Pinedale Middle School. Later that evening we had a great concert performance at the Pinedale Auditorium. A huge thank you goes out to Patrick, Tim, Lars and Dana for bringing us out to Pinedale and for all their work in making our performances a success.

During our time in Pinedale we ended up eating at the Wind River Brewery three times in two days and even made friends with some of the regulars (shout out to Kenny!). Yesterday we drove from Pinedale to Gillette through terrible weather. It was slow going but we arrived in one piece. Tomorrow we’ll be going out to a local elementary school for a couple of lecture demos. Today we finish our tech early and are settling down to watch the Niners!

Our dance collaborator from Sun Valley Idaho, Kristine, sent us these fun photos from a joint performance we did at the local highschool. Thank you Kristine!

I have been remiss in singing the praises of the “On Ensemble”. In January this group performed at the Matthews Opera House in Spearfish South Dakota and what a treat! The concert is still being talked about. The quality and professionalism of this group well exceeded even the University Faculty who attended. Given an opportunity I would not hesitate to have this group perform in our venue again. While this type of entertainment may be new to Spearfish I have been involved in the presenting business for well over a decade and this group was not only pleasing to the audience but a true group of unassuming gentlemen who went out of their way to provide an outstanding concert. All I can say is “Thank you”!

Kris and I are at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University in Chicago rehearsing for Eric Whitacre’s Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings! We’re performing tomorrow at Roosevelt University and are totally excited as always to be part of this production. We got in yesterday and spent the evening having a lesson and having fun with our host, John Yost. Thanks John and family for hosting us and letting us borrow your drums!

For those of you who don’t know, Paradise Lost is a production we did in Pasadena in 2007 that ran for about three months. It combines operatic singing (with seven leads), a choir (over 200 singers!), acting, choreographed fighting, electronica, cello, a DJ, and taiko (us, of course). The story is about children of angels who were locked in their angel city when their parents left to battle. The parents never came back and the children are forced to govern themselves. This results in internal conflict.

Last year, Shoji and I performed at Carnegie Hall in New York which was a blast! This year, we’re here in Chicago and are at Disney Hall in Los Angeles on June 25. Check it out!

Here is a picture of today’s rehearsal.  You can see Kris and the taiko all the way on the left side.

We arrived home this morning at about 2am. It feels good to be back, but it sure was fun to meet everyone along the road. Thank you to all the groups that hosted workshops, all the friends that housed us, all the venues that invited us to perform, and all the people came to see us along the way. It was a wonderful adventure!

Miles driven: 7465
Workshops taught: 18
Performances: 9
Taiko players met: 252
Car issues: 1 bad coil, 6 bad spark plugs, 1 bad tire and rim
Coldest temp: 6F (near Denver, before wind-chill)
Babies born: 1

“Idaho… it’s more than potatoes!”

After Spearfish SD, we made our way to Ketchum ID, for a residency with Sun Valley Center for the Arts. In two, jam-packed days we did three school shows, a rehearsal and collaborative performance with Footlight Dance Company, and a final concert. The word “packed” is particularly apt because all the events were in different locations, so the days involved lots of moving drums. But Kristine, Albert, Britt, and the rest of the Sun Valley Center for the Arts gang were so overwhelmingly helpful and hospitable, that our time in Idaho was some of our best on tour. Thank you to Kristine and Hilarie and everyone who came to our final show!

Kids at one of the schools we visited made us sweet thank-you cards.

Footlight Dance Company choreographed a number of dances to On Ensemble’s music and we did a joint performance at a local high-school. It was a real treat to work with Hilarie and have our music realized in movement. Congratulations to the dancers! Here is Footlight’s interpretation of Shoji’s Watashi Watashitachi.

We then made our way to Ogden UT for two workshops with Ogden Buddhist Taiko. We taught Composition Step By Step and did a Master Class, giving feedback on the structure, playing form, and timing of one of the group’s pieces. It was a fun-filled six hours of taiko. Thank you Stan and Ogden Buddhist Taiko!

Our final workshop was in Las Vegas, with the great Kaminari Taiko. We taught Composition Step By Step and were able to pull together a pretty satisfying draft of a piece in our 2.5 hours, thanks to the 3/4-time base beat suggested by one of the members. There were lots of great ideas all around. Thank you Jen and Kaminari Taiko!

After Toronto, we made our way state-side to Bowling Green OH, where we visited the university-based Kaze no Daichi.  Here we debuted my new, Composition Step By Step workshop, with the ambitious goal of composing a whole piece in 2.5 hours.  My teaching and the workshop structure was a bit rough around the edges but the members of Kaze no Daichi were extremely creative and productive.  There is much good music to come from these guys.  Thanks to Jake and the gang for having us!

We then headed to Chicago to visit long-time taiko advocate, John Yost, and members of his groups.  John is a force for taiko, presenting groups like Kodo in years past, and now performing regularly, and providing access to taiko classes in the greater Chicago area.  John knows all about the rigours of touring and very graciously arranged a workshop and housed us for the night.  We had a great time with the Chicago taiko characters, teaching the 30 Days to Better Shime workshop for John and six of his students.  Thank you, John!

From friendly face to friendly face…  Long-time On Ensemble friend and supporter, Wendy Jedlicka, arranged a workshop for us in Minneapolis.  In planning the tour, I initially thought we’d travel south and would miss Minneapolis.  When our route changed, I contacted Mu Daiko but it was too late to arrange a formal workshop.  Many of the members were going to be in Sacramento for an odaiko intensive.  But Wendy invited available Mu members and taiko friends to join us for another round of Composition Step By Step.  I felt much better about how it went this time.  We were able to bang together a rough piece inspired by Renshuu and all the participants had great ideas and questions.  Thank you Wendy!

From Minneapolis, we made our way to Spearfish SD, for a performance arranged by the Spearfish Arts Center at the Matthews Opera House.  The organization of the concert was rather last-minute, and we had no idea what to expect.  None of us had ever performed in South Dakota and we had flashbacks of a concert in 2009, playing for a single audience member (John in Placerville, we love you!).  It turned out our fears were unfounded.  Michael at the Spearfish Arts Center went to great lengths to take care of us, the theater was the perfect size and sound for our music, and the concert was attended by a throng of enthusiastic, loving Spearfishians.  It was a wonderful experience, and one of the highlights of the tour!  Thank you Michael and the great folks of Spearfish!  Hope we’re able to return someday!