Odaiko Sonora News: New Year 2008

From left: akemashite omedetou gozaimasu! • Rome performs at the Showcase • Odaiko Sonora members run-through Hisakata • Karen celebrates New Year’s Eve in Pasadena by staying up all night preparing for the Rose Parade opening, Venetian float in background, new hachimaki over wooly hat fashion statement in foreground.

Year of Rat

Summing up 2007 would be a difficult task. Odaiko Sonora did an unprecedented 47 performances, residencies and workshops, 15 of which were for K-12 audiences, 9 of which were major all-ages festivals, and 5 of which were multi-day programs. We produced two full-length concert events and did a bit of national outreach by participating in the Taiko Ten concert, the Jodaiko NW Tour ‘07, and (spanning the New Year) preparations for the Rose Parade. All in all, we played for nearly 18,000 people! We’ll count the international TV audience of a few million in next year’s tally.... In case you didn’t catch Karen and Rome in the opening of the Rose Parade, you can see a replay of the piece on YouTube

For gory production details, you can read the Odaiko Sonora blog.

With the Showcase and holidays behind us, we’re gearing up for our annual series of Asian New Year celebrations: the Lunar New Year concert sponsored by Tucson Unified School District’s Pan Asian Studies Department (Feb. 8), the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center’s celebration (Feb.9), and the Pan-Asian Community Alliance (Feb.16). We’re pleased to be able to bring this oldest tradition of taiko—gathering people for celebration—to the people of Tucson. But before any of those is one of our favorites: the Family Arts Festival, this year sponsored by the Glassman Foundation. We’ll have a table at the festival all day, and play the finale at 4pm on the El Presidio Stage. Come by the table for a little lesson so you can join us during our set in a traditional festival drum and dance piece. There’ll be prizes for the the most earnest and the most enthusiastic dancers.

Classes for you and yours

After FAF, we’ll kick off a new 10-week session of Adult Recreational Taiko (ART), a Taiko Youth Group (ages 12 and up), a new Taiko ‘Tweens kids’ class (ages 8–12), and many other sessions. Visit our website and click on the “Play Taiko” and then “classes” links to find the taiko class that’s right for you and your family members. Some scholarships are available for the youth and kids’ classes. Email karen@tucsontaiko.org for more information on those.

Dates of Note

See our website for a full list of appearances, but these are a few to put in your planners now:

Family Arts Festival, Sunday, Jan 13, 4:00pm, El Presidio Stage
Join the whole Odaiko Sonora Community Group for the finale of this free day of family fun in downtown Tucson

Mythos, Jan. 25, 7:30pm & Sun., Jan. 27, 1:30pm, Stevie Eller Theatre, UA campus
An evening-length production featuring mime, film, trapeze, circus silks, stilt walkers, walking globes, dancers and Odaiko Sonora in an astrobiology-inspired search for life’s meaning and human destiny. Tickets are $13/$10, and available online or at Antigone Books, 411 N. 4th Ave.

Shidara at the Fox Theatre, Sun., April 20, 7:00pm
People are still talking. If you missed them last time, you won’t want to this time. If you saw them last time, you don’t need convincing: this will be the concert of the season!

2nd Annual Asian Pacific Heritage Festival, Sat., May 10, times tbd, Tucson Chinese Cultural Center
Learn more about Tucson’s various Asian Pacific cultural groups as we celebrate Asian Pacific Heritage Month together. This festival features a unique cultural education component: all performers teach so attendees may participate in community song and dance as it was meant to be done.

Our success is your success

As successful as we have been in this past year, our teaching and performing doesn’t quite cover the expenses of maintaining a studio, providing drums for students and community members, and general operating costs such as liability insurance and payroll taxes. The fact is, our players and teachers volunteer their time to make Odaiko Sonora a reality, and the overwhelming majority of people we play for each year get to enjoy our group at no cost! Most people don’t understand what it takes to maintain a healthy performing arts organization. On the other hand, most people also don’t know that for as little as it costs to eat out for lunch once a month, you can have a lasting impact on our community by enabling a group like Odaiko Sonora to do its work. We ask that you consider becoming a Friend of Odaiko Sonora (FOOS) today, and invest in the future of taiko in southern Arizona. Just a few dollars a month can keep us going. Email karen@tucsontaiko.org or call Karen at (520) 481-8003 to learn how easy and rewarding it is to be a FOOS. You can also visit our website and click on the “Donate Now” button. Please note if you choose to go to our website, that our group tax exemption is listed under the North American Folk and Dance Alliance. “Odaiko Sonora” will show up in the first address line.

Arigatou gozaimasu!