From the Executive Director

As we come to the end of 2025—our 25th Anniversary year, I’ve been able to reflect on our cumulative body of work.  We truly started with humble beginnings, with little more than our mission, dedication and passion. 

I have not shared this story a lot, but I was partially inspired to create TAIKOPROJECT back in 2000 after I visited KODO (the world’s pre-eminent professional taiko ensemble) at their home on Sado Island in Japan.

I watched them perform in their Earth Celebration concerts and saw the love and energy shared between their largely Japanese audience members, and the performing ensemble.  As a fourth-generation (Yonsei) Japanese-American who didn’t grow up speaking Japanese, I loved the performance, but felt like an outsider because I couldn’t speak with them about it (without a translator).

It was then that I realized that we had the opportunity to create a taiko group that could strive to connect in that same way, but with an American audience, and that desire to serve and connect with our community continues to drive us today, 25 years later.

With your support this past year, we accomplished the following:

• Presented our 25th Anniversary concert at the famed Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles

• Released two albums, “25,” our fourth studio album, and
  “Quetzal + TAIKOPROJECT,” our first collaborative album

• Performed for over 24,000 students at 65 schools across Southern California in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties

• Toured to Washington, Illinois, Texas, New Mexico, and Louisiana

• Performed for 5 Uniqlo Store openings in Southern California

• Taught workshops for the Very Special Arts Festival in DTLA

• Performed four times on the Disneyland campus in May

• Performed for special events for Mitsuwa, F5, Sumo + Sushi, the Japanese Music Experience LA, Occidental College, and MOCA

• Invested in a major stage system for our tours and home concerts

We only could have achieved all we have with all the support from our family, friends, and community.  For that, I will always be grateful and honored to continue our work.  On behalf of TAIKOPROJECT’s Board of Directors and our performing teams, thank you for an amazing year, and see you in 2026!

Bryan Yamami
Executive Director, TAIKOPROJECT

On Dec. 13, we concluded our year with TAIKOPROJECT Academy students and families with our annual Bonenkai (end-of-year recital and celebration).  Great job to all our students—thank you for all your hard work this year, and thank you to all our families for the enormous potluck dinner as part of the celebration!

A big THANK YOU to our instructors, who continue to work tirelessly to teach and nurture our growing family of adult and youth students.

2025 Fundraising Wrap-up

We have wrapped up our 25th Anniversary fundraising campaign with an astounding $97,949 raised over the last year.  We are so grateful to our friends, family, and supporters for encouraging us to continue our work and for making our anniversary concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall an overwhelming success!  We’d also like to extend a special thank you to John and Sarah Kobara, who championed our first matching gift campaign with a $20,000 challenge gift.  Thank you all for believing in us!

We are pleased to welcome Clara Mulligan onto our growing staff team as our new Program Assistant, effective Jan. 1, 2026.  Clara first started playing taiko with our Tanuki Taiko group back in 2012, and continued with Kitsune Taiko until graduating from high school.  She attended Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and studied Asian American Performance and Taiko in Spring 2025, and returned to LA this past summer.  If you see Clara, please congratulate her and wish her the best!

We are excited to announce that Rhythmic Relations 2026 will take place on Saturday, June 20, 2026 at 5 pm at the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center Eli and Edythe Broad Stage!  The concert will feature TAIKOPROJECT, Bombu Taiko, and Kitsune Taiko. We will have more to announce about the show next year, but for now, please hold the date!

2026 Summer Youth Camp

TAIKOPROJECT will be facilitating a Youth Summer Camp at Centenary United Methodist Church in Little Tokyo (downtown LA) from July 20-24.  There will be two camp programs; a beginner track for students with no prior taiko experience, and an intermediate track for students with some taiko experience.  Registration will be posted on our website on Feb. 1, 2026 at www.taikoprojectacademy.com

Spring 2026 National Tour

This coming Spring, we are excited to bring taiko to communities across the country in California, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana, and Iowa! Check out the dates and cities below!

Jan. 30 - UCLA Center for the Art of Performance (Los Angeles, CA)
Feb. 26-27 - Tassel PAC (Holdrege, NE)
Mar. 5-6 - Luhrs Performing Arts Center (Shippensburg, PA)
Mar. 7 - Williams Center for the Arts (Easton, PA)
Mar. 8 - The Suffolk (Riverhead, NY)
Mar. 12 - Slippery Rock University (Slippery Rock, PA)**
Mar. 13-15 - Workshop Tour (Pennsylvania, Ohio)**
Mar. 17-18 - Embassy Theatre (Fort Wayne, IN)*
Mar. 30-31 - Des Moines Performing Arts (Des Moines, IA)*

*These performances are presented for students only

**Workshops for local taiko groups

TAIKOPROJECT programs are made possible by

The Perenchio Foundation
Los Angeles County Department of Arts & Culture
City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs
Sansei Legacy of Southern California
TaikoVentures
and our amazing BaseBeat Donors