The North American Taiko community grew stronger this past weekend as the first annual East Coast Taiko Conference was held at the beautiful Cornell University campus in Ithaca, NY. More than 80 students came together from various schools (from 7 different states!) to learn from each other and from the various workshop leaders, get to know each other, build the Northeastern collegiate taiko community, and most importantly, have fun!

ECTC group shot!

"The odaiko was THIS big..."

Soh Daiko founding member Alan Okada kicked off the festivities with a presentation on the history of taiko in North America, and Soh Daiko hosted a workshop on Yodan form.  Other workshop leaders included PJ Hirabayashi from San Jose Taiko, Odaiko New England, Miles Endo, Mark H. Rooney, and Stuart Paton from Burlington Taiko.

ECTC workshop leaders

Working on the form without bachi and drums

Participants included: Wellesley College Aiko (MA), Bowdoin Taiko (ME), Brown Gendo Taiko (RI), Wesleyan University Kaze (CT), Bowling Green State University (OH), Kazenodaichi Taiko Ensemble (OH), Oberlin College OCTaiko (OH), Princeton Taiko (NJ), UConn Taiko (CT), Cornell Yamatai (NY), Rutsubo Taiko (MA), and our very own Soh Daiko trainees.

Bring on the drums!

Many thanks go out to the organizers, Dan Porter and Jon Wang; Cornell Yamatai for hosting; and the various workshop leaders and participants for a memorable experience. It’s amazing to consider how much North American Taiko has grown and will continue to grow. The groups in attendance have all been established in only the past 10 years. Some were even officially recognized in their schools just this year!

Off to Wegmans with PJ Hirabayashi after a long day of workshops!

Next up: the 2011 North American Taiko Conference in Stanford University in mid-August, and the 2012 East Coast Taiko conference in Wesleyan University next year. Hope to see you at both!