For me, 2011 was a year of change. The biggest and most obvious being my transformation from taiko obsessed landscape designer to taiko obsessed landscape designer who is also a mother.

Spring is the busy season for Odaiko New England. It’s the time of year when everyone wants to have taiko at their outdoor festivals. It’s also my personal busy season… I know I’m not the only taiko player to have a difficult time balancing work, life, and taiko, so I imagine my spring will sound familiar to a lot of folks out there.

It all started in April, right after we got our new ONE jackets and other gear…

Yesterday morning I swam 10,000 yards (5.68 miles/9.14 km)  in about 2 hours 38 minutes–the longest swimming workout of my life. I was participating in a special New Year’s event for Cambridge Masters Swim Club.  The swim was broken up into units of 100 yards swum on timed intervals.  I chose 1 minute 35 second [...]

I came home from Taiko Conference energized and wanting to practice all the time.  Husband Matt and I both decided to follow along with 30 Days to Better Shime: Round 3, which would mean that we’d need appropriate equipment.  We either needed to continue borrowing shime from the Odaiko New England drum closet, or get [...]

I’m sad to say that Summer Taiko Institute is already over.  Tanya, Joy, and I had a wonderful time. I think it is rare to see such impressive musicianship and excellent teaching skills in the same person, and even more amazing to find a group of four people who work so well together in both [...]

Author’s note: I wrote the following shortly after our 15th anniversary concert (reVISION on May 30 and 31), but found myself feeling shy about sharing this with the world, so I didn’t publish it right away. Just over a week has passed since ONE’s 15th anniversary concert, reVISION. Everyday life is flowing by so fast [...]

So, here we are, coming out of our anniversary concert, and there isn’t much time to rest. It’s my first chance to organize a gig. I rashly volunteered to organize a performance for the Waltham Riverfest.  Megan Gleeson of the Waltham Cultural Council approached me about this performance some time ago, and since Waltham is [...]

I just had a whirlwind weekend full of rhythm, attending a concert each day for the past three days. Friday Night: San Jose Taiko in Keene, NH Wow! One of the early numbers was a piece involving passing accented rhythms back and forth between two pairs of drummers.  I hope I can develop timing like [...]