COME BE OUR GUEST FOR
CELEBRATING A YEAR OF THUNDER
Friday, April 19, 2024, 7-9PM
MAC Ice House Theater
138 Independence St. Berkeley Springs, WV
Come help us celebrate a year of bringing the heartbeat of the Japanese Taiko Drum to the mountains with Berkeley Springs’ own Shangö Mountain Taiko!
In April of 2023, a “bunch of hillbillies with sticks” took up the thunderous Japanese Art of Taiko. A year later we’re still playing – big drums, bigger beats, and shouting in Japanese! We debuted our first Taiko Performance at the Morgan Arts Council’s Cherrry Blossom Festival on April 29th, 2023, to tremendous community approval. We took up the Group Name Shangö Mountain Taiko.
Since that debut, we have been training and recruiting players to make up the Taiko Team. We’ve been working on our skills, expanding our repetiore, learning about Japanese culture, and bringing the Heartbeat to the Mountains. We have been encouraging this delicate cherry blossom of a group to take root and grow without the benefit of a Zen Temple, Buddhist Church, Japan Society, College or University, or a Major Local Sponsor. We're still playing, and having a lot of fun — and we think that's worth celebrating!
Please join us for an informal evening of Taiko performance, socializing, and jamming for our anniversary. We’ll play some Taiko. We’ll Jam some. Drummers and musicians – bring your instruments and help us celebrate in an open groove jam Drum Circle! Hang out with our friends and guests. We’ll bring out the new Odaiko! It’s a Performa-party!
This is a FREE event, but we are requesting donations to support MAC and SMT.
The Morgan Arts Council is massively supporting us by letting us use their fabulous space rent–free, so it’s only fair that we ask for donations to support their work in Getting Art Out There.
We are also planning to apply for a grant to buy more drums, and we will need to raise 25% of the funds on our own. Any donations, even small ones, helps us reach that goal! Donations to MAC free up resources for that goal.
To RSVP, or for more information:
Contact Kurt Griffith @ 845 623-0940
or email us at: info@shangopercussion.org
Our gratitude for the support of the Morgan Arts Council, Black Cat Music Cooperative, Taiko Community Alliance, and Fantastic Realities Studio. Special thanks goes out to Bobby Seigetsu Avstreih for dropping that first pebble. Domo Arigato Gozaimashita!
Our 2024 Drum Fund Raiser
SMT’s Shimedaiko, our small 17in. Eisa-Odaiko, his “Big Brother”, a 21in. Nagado Chu-Daiko. We need MORE.
Please Help Us Out! Tasukete kudasai!
What we're trying to do is audacious, maybe a little nuts, so your support just means the world to this bunch of hillbillies with sticks! Arigato Gozaimasu!!! As a very new group, we pretty much need...well, everything. Our Members and trainees pay out of pocket for everything we use and need, costumes, some of our rehearsal spaces, training materials, instruments, travel expenses... literally the works.
But more than anything else, we need drums! Taiko Drums are extremely expansive. Obtaining and access to quality and culturally appropiate instuments is the overriding main barrier to entry for Taiko players and Taiko Groups!
We plan to apply for a WV Department of Arts, Culture & History Arts Grant for Living Traditions: Folk Art Project Support. We’ve partnered with the Taiko Community Alliance as a Fiscal Sponsor, and will be seeking the Grant under their 501c3 umbrella. However the grant we are targeting requires us to raise 25% of the requested funds ourselves. If we request the full available grant, we'd have to raise about $1250 as our portion. However, that could help secure two nagado taiko, and another shimedaiko!
Domo Arigato gozaimasu for however you can help!
We really appreciate it!
Back to the Shangö Mountain Taiko Page
For more resources & Demos, visit our Instructional Videos Page.
If you want to learn more about Taiko, Visit our Taiko Page
if you are interested in additional workshops, regular classes in this dynamic and expressive Japanese Drumming art, or joining Shangö Mountain Taiko, please contact us.
COVID-19 GUIDANCE – The safety of our drum community is always our first priority. We still recommend to please take all appropriate health precautions and practice good hygiene and steps to prevent illness as recommended by the CDC.
If you’ve tested positive, feeling unwell, or need to isolate, no problem! It's absolutely okay to say home and miss one. We certainly understand, and we do want to protect each other. Recover, get healthy, and we’ll see you next time!
Drum safe! Yassai!
Bringing the Thunder of Japanese Taiko to the Mountains of Appalachia.