Our five minutes in the limelight

So yesterday was the day of the Big Concert for all of Takagi-sensei's students. This was an end-of-term recital of sorts since the summer break is now here and the University of Art and Design with which Takagi-sensei is affiliated will be closing for the next month. It was also the official end of our 10-week rec community course, which is one of several groups that Takagi-sensei teaches.

The whole show was from 2 to 4 pm, with about ten groups performing, including a couple of rec groups like ours, a regular kids' group, an autistic children's group, the University's student group (a.k.a. Wadaiko Shin), and Takagi-sensei's semi-pro group Wadaiko Shien. Also present were two affiliated groups that are not led by Takagi-sensei, but have some connection with her. Takagi-sensei is one prolific drummer. In total, the whole show involved over a hundred drummers (though not on all at once!) and was staged in the beautiful modern kabuki theatre on the campus of the University of Art and Design where Takagi-sensei teaches.

Bringing everyone up-to-speed before the show

Last minute rehearsal. Fellow Canadian Debbie in the middle. Debbie is the one who first introduced me to Takagi-sensei

Emy, whom I first met at the 2005 NATC in Los Angeles. She's currently in Kyoto studying Japanese. And guess what, we ran into each other at Takagi-sensei's class. The world is truly a small place

Our rec group, billed as "Uryu (level-up class)", performed a piece that we've been working on for the last couple of months. This piece, whose name I still don't know, involves an interplay between two groups of nagado daiko, each about half a dozen strong, and a group of seven katsugi oke-daiko. I, of course, managed to contrive to be in the okedo section, although I didn't play my new drum as it's still not broken-in and its pitch would be waaay too high.

Now, I don't have any pictures of our group on stage (you must understand --- it's kinda hard to operate a camera while trying to play an oke-daiko...). Nor do I have any pictures from the actual show itself even though I got to watch the second half of the show from the back of the audience. But I do have lots of nice pictures from the technical rehearsal which started at 10am. Here is a selection...

The kids' group. They kick ass and are cute to boot

A women's group from what's-the-name-of-that-town on the Sea of Japan. Some of these ladies were also in our Uryu class

Mami-san, Wadaiko Shien's fue expert, accompanies the kids

Some of the Wadaiko Shin University of Art and Design undergrads

Wadaiko Shin getting ready to play Miyake

Wadaiko Shien. Takagi sensei on the right

Takagi sensei digs in

More Wadaiko Shien

So the show itself started at 2pm and we had our 5 minutes on stage about half-way through the first half. We survived without too many major mess-ups, and I was reasonably happy with my own playing, so all's well that ends well. After that we snuck off around to the back of the audience from where we could watch the rest of the show. And in the audience were my new multi-talented gaijin pal Ted (he of the Inadani taiko course) as well as Matsuda-san of Kyodai Astro plus his son. Thanks for coming, guys! Then it was off to the after-show party. And today it's off to the craziness of Gion Matsuri. So stay tuned, as they say.

Our five minutes in the limelight

So yesterday was the day of the Big Concert for all of Takagi-sensei's students. This was an end-of-term recital of sorts since the summer break is now here and the University of Art and Design with which Takagi-sensei is affiliated will be closing for the next month. It was also the official end of our 10-week rec community course, which is one of several groups that Takagi-sensei teaches.

The whole show was from 2 to 4 pm, with about ten groups performing, including a couple of rec groups like ours, a regular kids' group, an autistic children's group, the University's student group (a.k.a. Wadaiko Shin), and Takagi-sensei's semi-pro group Wadaiko Shien. Also present were two affiliated groups that are not led by Takagi-sensei, but have some connection with her. Takagi-sensei is one prolific drummer. In total, the whole show involved over a hundred drummers (though not on all at once!) and was staged in the beautiful modern kabuki theatre on the campus of the University of Art and Design where Takagi-sensei teaches.

Bringing everyone up-to-speed before the show

Last minute rehearsal. Fellow Canadian Debbie in the middle. Debbie is the one who first introduced me to Takagi-sensei

Emy, whom I first met at the 2005 NATC in Los Angeles. She's currently in Kyoto studying Japanese. And guess what, we ran into each other at Takagi-sensei's class. The world is truly a small place

Our rec group, billed as "Uryu (level-up class)", performed a piece that we've been working on for the last couple of months. This piece, whose name I still don't know, involves an interplay between two groups of nagado daiko, each about half a dozen strong, and a group of seven katsugi oke-daiko. I, of course, managed to contrive to be in the okedo section, although I didn't play my new drum as it's still not broken-in and its pitch would be waaay too high.

Now, I don't have any pictures of our group on stage (you must understand --- it's kinda hard to operate a camera while trying to play an oke-daiko...). Nor do I have any pictures from the actual show itself even though I got to watch the second half of the show from the back of the audience. But I do have lots of nice pictures from the technical rehearsal which started at 10am. Here is a selection...

The kids' group. They kick ass and are cute to boot

A women's group from what's-the-name-of-that-town on the Sea of Japan. Some of these ladies were also in our Uryu class

Mami-san, Wadaiko Shien's fue expert, accompanies the kids

Some of the Wadaiko Shin University of Art and Design undergrads

Wadaiko Shin getting ready to play Miyake

Wadaiko Shien. Takagi sensei on the right

Takagi sensei digs in

More Wadaiko Shien

So the show itself started at 2pm and we had our 5 minutes on stage about half-way through the first half. We survived without too many major mess-ups, and I was reasonably happy with my own playing, so all's well that ends well. After that we snuck off around to the back of the audience from where we could watch the rest of the show. And in the audience were my new multi-talented gaijin pal Ted (he of the Inadani taiko course) as well as Matsuda-san of Kyodai Astro plus his son. Thanks for coming, guys! Then it was off to the after-show party. And today it's off to the craziness of Gion Matsuri. So stay tuned, as they say.