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Join On Ensemble and guest artists for good food and good music! At noon, a meet-the-performers lunch features local, vegetarian food and music by top-ranked tsugaru shamisen player, Suwada Seijyuro. At 1:15pm, enthusiastic slant drummers convene for the Los Angeles debut of the Matsuri Crashers Battle, with audience voting! The events culminate in a 2pm concert featuring On Ensemble contemporary taiko alongside selections from the Kabuki musical repertoire. Held on the 1-year anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, the concert debuts “9.0″ for taiko and oboe, dedicated to musicians in Fukushima, Japan.

Good in Gardena
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Lunch: 12:00 noon, $25
Battle: 1:15 pm, free
Concert: 2:00 pm, $25
Gardena Valley JCI
1964 West 162nd Street
Gardena CA 90247

$5 discount for cyclists and indoor bike valet
Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/225761

Lunch Details

Sunday, March 11, 12 noon
Reservations required ($25)
JCI Gardens Apartments (next door to Gardena Valley JCI)
Social Hall
2000 W 162nd St
Torrance CA 90504

Parking available in Gardena Valley JCI parking lot at 1964 W 162nd St, or free street parking.

The meet-the-performers lunch features home-made, vegan food with locally sourced, organic ingredients. Special guest, Meiji Tofu, will be on hand to explain the making of fresh tofu. A “No Trash Event”, attendees bring their own plates, drinking cups, and napkins. Sawada Seijyuuro, first-place winner of the 2006 All-Japan Tsugaru Shamisen Contest, will perform musical selections and explain the music’s background and inspirations.

Menu (subject to change)

• lettuce salad with basil-olive oil, ponzu, and maple-syrup dressing
• hand-made hiyayako (cold tofu) with fresh toppings, served with 50%-polished brown rice
• mabo tofu (spicy, soft tofu with green onions)
• chard goma-ae (sweet Japanese greens and sesame)
• yaki imo (baked Japanese sweet potato)
• seasonal fruit and cinnamon cookies

Battle Details

Sunday, March 11, 1:15 pm
Outdoor, free and open to the public
Gardena Valley JCI parking lot
1964 W 162nd St
Gardena CA 90247

Parking available in Gardena Valley JCI parking lot at 1964 W 162nd St, or free street parking.

For the past six months, more than a dozen slant-drum enthusiasts have been preparing new moves and rhythms for the Los Angeles debut of the Matsuri Crashers Battle. Players face off on a single drum in singles and doubles competition. The audience surrounds the action and chooses each battle’s winner with the “shobu” voting system: stand up to vote for the standing player, squat down to vote for the kneeling player. Individual battles utilize one of six available “structures” with fixed length, speed, and base-beat. These structures, named for Los Angeles freeways, involve call-and-response between players and audience. The 30-minute, outdoor event is free and open to the public, held in the Gardena Valley JCI parking lot.

Concert Details

Sunday, March 11, 2:00 pm
Reservations required ($25)
Gardena Valley JCI Veterans’ Hall
1964 W 162nd St
Gardena CA 90247

Parking available in Gardena Valley JCI parking lot at 1964 W 162nd St, or free street parking.

On Ensemble is joined by 12 (!) guest artists to present a combination of contemporary and traditional music in an intimate, all-acoustic setting. Alongside established repertoire like Little Man and Watashi Watashitachi, On Ensemble presents the Los Angeles debut of Re-Recycled Beats for bonang and uchiwa-daiko, and the premier of upbeat jam-song, Tally Ho. Commemorating the 1-year anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, the concert will also debut 9.0 for taiko and oboe, dedicated to musicians in Fukushima, Japan. With master musicians from Japan, the concert will feature the large-ensemble Kabuki classic, Kagami-Jishi, and the evocative Fuji Ondo with traditional dance. Kineya Katsuyukie joins On Ensemble for an original arrangement of the contemporary shamisen piece, Dagakki.

Bring a blank CD to take home a free, live recording of the concert!

Program (subject to change)
(“*” indicates Los Angeles debut)

• Little Man
• Watashi Watashitachi
• Dagakki*
• Fuji Ondo
• Hisashi
• 9.0*
• Tsugaru vs Nagauta shamisen demo*
• Kagami Jishi
• Re-Recycled Beats*
• Jack Bazaar
• Tally Ho*

Performers

• Masato Baba
• Kristofer Bergstrom / Kineya Katsukoujyu
• Shoji Kameda
• Kineya Katsuyukie
• Kineya Katsujyuurou / Sawada Seijyuurou
• Kineya Wayukiji
• Matsunaga Wakikou
• Kashiwa Etsuko
• Kineya Katsuyukio
• Kineya Katsukoushin
• Matsumoto Masako
• Kineya Yasoyo
• Nakamura Narumi
• Brady Fukumoto

On Ensemble recently went on tour to Wyoming and then to Texas. As you know, we drive EVERYWHERE. It helps save cash and, even though it’s still burning fuel, it’s better for our carbon footprint versus flying. Fun time on the road!

-Approximate miles driven in the van – 5,563 plus
-Shoji and Kelvin’s approximate time spent in the van – 49 plus
-Maz and Kris’ approximate time spent in the van – 90 plus
-States passed through – California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Texas
-Time zones passed through – 3 (Pacific, Mountain, and Central)
-Number of Lecture/Demonstrations – 7
-Number of Concerts – 3
-Times chains had to be used – 2
-Approximate cups of rice made – 30
-Approximate curry lunches (Punjab Choley from Trader Joe’s) consumed – 13
-Approximate tofu dinners consumed – 10
-Times our gas light went on – Once. There was a stretch of the 10 freeway in Texas where there were no gas stations for like 150 miles. Abunai!
-We actually had time to watch the 49ers vs Giants NFC Championship game! It was fun, but we wished for a different out come!
-Times I got asked if I was “that guy in the Hangover” – 4. Dang Ken Jeong. Is this a good compliment or a bad one? Maybe it’s time for a haircut.

-Times Kris got asked if he looked like Scott Hamilton – Once, but this was probably the 2nd or 3rd time someone asked him that. Other people Kris has been compared to: Chris Martin of Coldplay, Paul Bettany, Ari Shapiro (voice only), and… Arnold Schwarzenegger???
-I asked Shoji and Kelvin who they’ve been compared to. Shoji said Jake Shimabukuro. Kelvin said Saul Williams.
-Kris won the “Man Card” of the tour. He was the best at backing up the trailer. I had to give up being the driver and he had to take over.
-Kris and I stopped at “The Thing” off of the Interstate 10 Freeway. I can’t tell you what it is. You have to google it. Silly stuff… it was only a dollar, so why NOT? Gotta do at least one silly thing on tour right?

The Wyoming tour was a blast! The Gillette paper published a short article about our in-school performances and took the additional photo below.

Thank you to Dana, Lars, Tim, Patrick in Pinedale and Jaymi, Rachel, Cathy, Bruce, Kit, and Adam in Gillette!

Here at On Ensemble each of us has several musical projects we are involved with. Kris and Maz both perform with Taikoproject, Kelvin performs with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and I perform with Hiroshima and have always been into producing electronic music. Two years ago I formed an electronic music duo with longtime friend and two time Grammy winning composer Christopher Tin called Stereo Alchemy. I’m excited to announce our debut album God of Love will be released this Valentine’s Day and is on pre-sale now! We are calling our sound ‘decadent electronica’ a seductive mix of trip-hop, post punk and synth pop that will appeal to fans of Massive Attack, Portishead, The Postal Service, M83 and Nine Inch Nails.

God of Love is a concept album that sets Renaissance and Romantic era poetry to beat driven tracks and epic soundscapes. It features vocals by singers Melissa R. Kaplan (of Universal Hall Pass and Splashdown), Mozez (of Zero 7), and Lia Rose (of Built for the Sea). The album was mixed by three-time Grammy-winning engineer Darrell Thorp (Radiohead, Beck, and Paul McCartney) and mastered by Tom Baker (Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson).

For a preview of the album and a free download of the title track ‘God of Love’ visit: www.stereoalchemy.com.

Our next performance is our TAIKO 2.0 collaboration with taiko pioneer Kenny Endo! The Department of Performance Studies at Texas A&M is bringing us to college station for a concert performance and educational activities. It’s always great to share the stage with Kenny and the amazing musicians in his ensemble.

TAIKO 2.0
On Ensemble and the Kenny Endo Taiko Ensemble
Wednesday Feb 8th, 7:30pm
Rudder Theater
Texas A&M
General Admission $10 Students $5
For more information call (979) 845-1515

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!

Happy New Year On Ensemble fans! 2012 is going to be great year and we’re starting off the year with performances in Pinedale and Gillette Wyoming. We’ll be in Pinedale on Friday Jan 20th for educational outreach programs and concert performance in the evening. Then we’re headed to Gillette for educational outreach programs on Monday the 23rd followed by a concert on the 24th. Check out our calendar section for more details.

Friday Jan 20th
7:00pm
Pinedale Auditorium
147 E. Hennick St.
Pinedale, WY 82941

Tuesday Jan 24th
7:00pm
Heritage Center Theater
Gillette, Wyoming