press

Press Release

Shasta Taiko Announces Decision to Temporarily
Move Its Annual Outdoor Summer Taiko
Festival Indoors in 2013

Shasta Taiko is planning to hold its annual taiko festival indoors at the College of the Siskiyous Kenneth Ford Theater this year and refocus its efforts toward a bigger and better ShastaYama Festival in Shastice Park in 2014.

“Organizing an outdoor event like ShastaYama is a year-round endeavor,” says Russel Baba, founder and director of Shasta Taiko. “Focusing for 2014 provides a realistic timeline to plan and fundraise for a major annual event on the scale of ShastaYama. We want to keep the momentum going forward, however, to present a world-class taiko presentation every year. The move back to COS this summer will reduce expenses, time, and energy considerably, providing more time to plan for ShastaYama 2014 and beyond.”

Anyone who has attended ShastaYama will agree that the spectacular setting in Shastice Park at the base of Mt. Shasta with surrounding panoramic views is breathtaking, and adding the dynamic sounds and visuals of taiko, dance, and music makes ShastaYama a magical blend of nature and art – a formula for success.

Taiko’s appealing, mesmerizing sound is resounding around the world. Taiko is now seen or heard in advertisements, movies, television productions, and throughout the media.

“The timing for taiko and ShastaYama seems right, Baba says. “In our 40 years in taiko, Jeanne Mercer (co-founder and co-director of Shasta Taiko) and I have witnessed tremendous growth of taiko in America and worldwide. Its development as a modern performance art has been dramatic. There are now a wide variety of outstanding American taiko artists and groups. ShastaYama provides a venue to present, create, encourage, and inspire. It has gained a reputation among taiko groups as a premier performance venue. Its success seems obviously beneficial to our area as well as the art world on many levels. With the support of many, we’ve accomplished great work establishing ShastaYama. People are already disappointed that ShastaYama is postponed until 2014.”

Attendance at ShastaYama has averaged over 1,000 throughout its eight years. But ticket revenue only begins to cover the cost of producing ShastaYama, and the economy has been a factor the past 2 to 3 years. The necessary fundraising takes considerable time and effort while costs continue to rise. ShastaYama needs to increase its budget to cover added technical costs and assistance, crew fees, lodging, equipment rentals. The Shasta Taiko organization hopes to attract more business support and sponsorship in addition to its public support. A future vision is to have a permanent stage installed at Shastice Park, which makes economic sense and would benefit not only ShastaYama but the local community and area groups as well.

“Last year ShastaYama was ‘live-streamed’ around the world. With this kind of technology, it may be possible to attract sponsorship and support with the potential of worldwide exposure. Extraordinary music and high quality art presented amidst the alpine beauty of Mt. Shasta – it’s inspirational, exciting, unique, and hopefully something a sponsor would love to be involved with,” says Russel.

Russel adds, “We’ll miss the wonderful outdoor venue of Shastice Park this year, but the College of the Siskiyous Theater will return taiko to the indoor stage for an opportunity of intimate and inspired theatrical refinement. The annual Shasta Taiko in Concert series sell-outs at COS from 1996 to 2004 inspired the move outdoors and the establishment of ShastaYama.”

About this year’s presentation at COS, Jeanne enthuses “I am so excited to present the On Ensemble this year. They are an incomparable group, very unique and musical, executing with technical brilliance. Their performance will lend itself perfectly to the indoor stage.”

The On Ensemble is based in Los Angeles and features Masato Baba (son of Russel and Jeanne) and Shoji Kameda, who both grew up in Mt. Shasta and trained with Russel and Jeanne from an early age though high school. They developed a passion for taiko and have gone on to become two of the top taiko artists and leaders in North American taiko. Masato has performed and toured worldwide with the On Ensemble and also with another top group, Taiko Project?, for which he is the Artistic Dirctor. Some performance highlights include the Academy Awards, with Alicia Keyes on the X- Factor, at Carnegie Hall, and many more from Alaska to Canada to Europe and Japan. Shoji is a member of the Asian American jazz fusion band Hiroshima, and has performed with Stevie Wonder and other notables. Besides taiko, he composes music for other genres as well.

Also featured are ShastaYama favorites Michelle Fujii and Toru Watanabe of Portland Taiko, who bring their powerful and exquisite creativity in dance and drumming to the stage.

To complete the concert, North American taiko pioneers Russel Baba and Jeanne Mercer will present their community group Shasta Taiko.

Shasta Taiko is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting, preserving, teaching and developing the art of taiko in Siskiyou County and beyond. Since 1985 Shasta Taiko has presented world-class taiko artists and other artists in jazz, spoken word, martial arts, and even a memorable Eskimo group from Alaska. Hundreds of adults and youth have received taiko training, and the community group has participated in performances, demonstrations, and workshops for schools and various community organizations and events. Shasta Taiko’s longstanding programs have grown into a cultural tradition in Mt. Shasta.

The Shasta Taiko in Concert at the College of the Siskiyous is scheduled for July 20 at 7 pm. Seating is limited so advance ticket purchase is strongly advised. Tickets will go on sale around May 15. Check the ShastaYama or Shasta Taiko websites for information: http://www.shastayama.org or http://www.shastataiko.org.