After weathering a lot of pandemic cancellations and shut-downs, we’re finally able to host a beginner class again! Starting this Sunday afternoon, it goes for four weeks at our studio in Bellevue.
Details are on our Beginner Classes page. Head over to the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania website to register!
We are still requiring masks, and all students must be vaccinated. Hoping we can have the windows open too if the weather cooperates!
We’re excited to be performing again for Carnegie-Mellon’s JSA Matsuri event after two years of cancellations!
This event is open to the public and features Japanese food, games, and entertainment. Pittsburgh Taiko is tentatively scheduled to perform between 2 and 3 pm.
Check out the CMU Japanese Student Association website for more information (and if you want to pre-order food/game tickets) – https://cmujsa.com/matsuri/
We’re back in the studio and working on some new material to share with you!
The coronavirus surge meant we couldn’t schedule our beginner session in January like we wanted to. But we’re working on a new plan and will have information out soon.
Hope we can see you in person soon!
Here are all the dates when Pittsburgh Taiko will be playing at the Asian Lantern Festival:
We’ll be presenting several performance sets between 6:30 and about 9:30.
Most nights we’ll be in the village at the top of the escalators, but for a few nights we’ll be down by the parking lot outside the zoo entrance. You can see us those nights without buying a ticket – but the lanterns are wonderful and we highly recommend going to see them!
More information and advance ticket purchase (recommended!): https://www.pittsburghzoo.org/asian-lantern-festival/
You can also see this information at our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/PittsburghTaiko
Pittsburgh Taiko is happy to join the performing lineup for the Pittsburgh Zoo’s Asian Lantern Festival, which runs from mid-August to the end of October.
(We aren’t performing every night – we’re a small group! But we’ll add the dates to our calendar in a few days.)
We’ll also be there to welcome you to the kickoff event, Wild Illuminations, on August 13. This festival preview party includes food, drink, music, activities, and entertainment for guests 21 and up. Tickets and details are available here: https://www.pittsburghzoo.org/wild-illuminations/
Not sure what to expect? Here’s a preview of some of the sights!
Since most of our core group has been fully vaccinated, we’re gradually coming out of isolation and returning to regular practice!
We have a lot of fun events on the schedule for later this year – but we need more taiko players to make them awesome! Would you like to join us?
If you haven’t played taiko before, we can teach you. We’re running some casual, socially distanced outdoor lessons over the next several weeks – check the Beginner Sessions page for details!
Make sure you get on our email list to find out when the practices are. Since we’re holding these outdoors we have to work around the weather and other park users, so we can’t always schedule more than a few days in advance. Email us at pitt.taiko+recruit21@gmail.com (mailto link) to learn more.
If you have played taiko before, that’s awesome and we’d love to have you play with us. Come join a practice and meet us – we’re a community group where everyone can participate. Use the email above to get in touch.
Hope to see you soon!
We probably should have noticed this last year, but until 2020 we were always pretty busy around this time of year….
So now it’s the 11th anniversary of our first public performances!
The first two performances happened back to back. We performed at a Pitt departmental event, Celebration of World Music, on Saturday December 5. On Sunday the 6th we joined with another taiko group from the region to represent the Japanese Classroom at the Nationality Rooms Open House.
The Open House performance was our first time on real drums!
More photos on our Flickr page:
This year’s this year’s Pitt Nationality Rooms Open House is online! Check out globalhub.pitt.edu/holiday-open-house between December 6 and December 18 to see all the presentations.
Thanks to the Japanese Classroom Committee for inviting us to participate!
The open house content is live now! New videos will be released every day through the 18th.
The Japanese Nationality Room’s videos will premiere on these days:
After December 18 all of the videos will be available to view through the end of December.
We’ve been keeping busy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Check out the video we made for the JASP virtual Annual Dinner to find out more!
https://youtu.be/ymgrFmIRsXg
We have joined the lineup at the last minute for the WorldSquare international festival in Market Square this Friday, September 13. Come see us! We perform 8:00-8:30.