On Ensemble : Masato Baba, Kristofer Bergstrom, Shoji Kameda and Kelvin Underwood » California WorldFest http://onensemble.org Neo-traditional taiko Mon, 14 May 2012 12:54:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 WorldFest Wrap-up http://onensemble.org/2009/07/worldfest-wrap-up/ http://onensemble.org/2009/07/worldfest-wrap-up/#comments Sun, 19 Jul 2009 08:42:36 +0000 shoji http://onensemble.org/?p=1821 We’ve had an amazing couple of days at the California WorldFest!  It’s one of the best music festivals I’ve ever been to or performed in.  First of all the Grass Valley/Nevada City area is really cool.  It reminds me a lot of the Mt. Shasta area with it’s beautiful scenery and super friendly people.  In fact Maz and I ended up staying with one of my good high school friends whom I hadn’t seen for a years while we were in Grass Valley.  We had a mini Mt. Shasta High reunion.

I’ve been completely blown away by the other bands at the WorldFest.  You know a band is really good when they make you realize you like something that you never knew you did.  I totally had a moment like that watching the Old Blind Dogs work the audience into a hypnotic dancing frenzy.  The band’s rhythms and vocal harmonies were so tight it was ridiculous and I thought  “Wow, I didn’t know I liked Scottish roots music.”

worldfest1After our two performances on Friday Maz, Kelvin and I stayed to watch the evening acts play on the main stage.  We didn’t have very good seats and then out of the blue someone offered us these amazing seats not ten feet from the stage (Thanks Dale!).  The headline act was the Indigo Girls who were fantastic.  Amazing energy, great song writing, great vocal harmonies and just great music.

worldfest2On Saturday we got the play the main stage ourselves.  We were the opening act to the opening act of the opening act to the opening act of the opening act of Los Lobos, the East L.A. legends themselves!

We’d like to thank Dan Dewayne and the entire staff and volunteers at the WorldFest.  Everyone was so friendly and helpful, great to work with and to top it off there were even free massages for the artists backstage!  Also a big thank you goes out to Yoko-san who made us sound great and to Thad for putting half of On Ensemble up for the weekend.  Hopefully we can make it back to Grass Valley next year!

]]> http://onensemble.org/2009/07/worldfest-wrap-up/feed/ 2 Listen to On Ensemble perform live on KVMR http://onensemble.org/2009/07/listen-to-on-ensemble-perform-live-on-kvmr/ http://onensemble.org/2009/07/listen-to-on-ensemble-perform-live-on-kvmr/#comments Sat, 18 Jul 2009 10:45:25 +0000 shoji http://onensemble.org/?p=1818 We’ll be performing on the main stage at the California World Fest at 5:30pm on Saturday evening and the performance will be broadcast live on KVMR 89.5FM, Nevada County’s public radio station.  You can also listen to the broadcast on-line at the KVMR website!

We’re having an amazing time at the World Fest so far!  We had two performances today and then stayed to watch the Wailing Souls and the Indigo Girls.  I’ll post more soon!

]]> http://onensemble.org/2009/07/listen-to-on-ensemble-perform-live-on-kvmr/feed/ 0 Indigo Girls, Los Lobos, 30 more bands and… http://onensemble.org/2009/07/indigo-girls-los-lobos-30-more-bands-and/ http://onensemble.org/2009/07/indigo-girls-los-lobos-30-more-bands-and/#comments Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:37:38 +0000 shoji http://onensemble.org/?p=1804 On Ensemble this weekend at the California Worldfest!  We’ve heard a lot about the Worldfest and we’re very excited to be a part of this year’s lineup featuring eight stages of music an dance from around the world.  It should be a ton of fun!  We’ll be performing Friday and Saturday, here’s our schedule:

Friday July 17th
10:00 am    Pine Tree Stage
1:30 pm     Workshop at the Discovery Stage
4:00 pm     Welcome Stage

Saturday July 18th
2:30 pm     Welcome Stage
5:30 pm     Meadow Stage

]]> http://onensemble.org/2009/07/indigo-girls-los-lobos-30-more-bands-and/feed/ 0 “Ume in the Middle” available now! http://onensemble.org/2009/05/ume-in-the-middle-available-now/ http://onensemble.org/2009/05/ume-in-the-middle-available-now/#comments Tue, 05 May 2009 08:30:20 +0000 shoji http://onensemble.org/?p=1468 Today is the official release date for “Ume in the Middle”!  It’s available now at CDBaby.com and on iTunes. We’re also hitting the road to celebrate the release of our new album with up coming performances in Ashland, Tahoe, Placerville and Berkeley.  Next month we’ll be in Eugene and the month after that  we’ll have some Los Angeles performances and perform at the California WorldFest along with this year’s headliners Los Lobos and the Indigo Girls.

]]> http://onensemble.org/2009/05/ume-in-the-middle-available-now/feed/ 1 Long overdue calendar update http://onensemble.org/2009/03/long-overdue-calendar-update/ http://onensemble.org/2009/03/long-overdue-calendar-update/#comments Wed, 18 Mar 2009 08:51:24 +0000 shoji http://onensemble.org/?p=1356 I just finished updating our calendar section with new performances.  We’ll be making our first run out to Utah in April with a perpformance at Salt Lake Community College and we have a very busy summer lined up with performances at the Oregon Bach Festival, the Ford Ampitheater, the Levitt Pavilion and the California WorldFest.  AND…  that’s all before the Summer Taiko Institute and the 2009 North American Taiko Conference.

The Summer Taiko Institute was recently feature on Create Culture a great social networking site for art lovers everywhere.  There is even a throat singing camp in Tuva featured on the site, how cool is that?

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