Korean Drumming and Creative Music Ensemble and Taiko Japanese Drumming Ensemble Spring Concert

Sunday, May 4, 2025 at 4:00pm
World Music Hall

Free and open to the public

Wesleyan students, faculty, and staff can RSVP on WesNest, but reservations are not required.

A concert by Wesleyan’s Taiko Japanese Drumming Ensemble, directed by Visiting Instructor in Music Fumi Tanakadate, will be followed by a performance from the Korean Drumming and Creative Music Ensemble, directed by Assistant Professor of the Practice in Music Jin Hi Kim.

Beginning and advanced students of the Korean Drumming and Creative Music Ensemble play new arrangements of samulnori (percussion quartet) repertoire, performed on two-headed drums (janggu), barrel drums (buk), hand gong (kwenggari), and a suspended gong (jing). The ensemble plays a variety of mesmerizing janggu rhythmic patterns, and also creates new pieces, discovering the sounds that are possible through imaginative explorations on their instruments.

Wesleyan’s Taiko Japanese Drumming Ensemble introduces students to the fundamentals of this Japanese style of drumming, with an emphasis on kumidaiko (ensemble drumming), as well as the philosophies and the cultural context (focusing on diasporic contexts). Students learn basic form and technique and have the opportunity to perform thunderous and thrilling rhythms that engage several dynamic and exciting styles from traditional and contemporary Taiko repertoire.