CLICK HERE for the Legacy Shangö Percussion Site
Over Two Years of Bringing the Heartbeat of Japanese Taiko to the Mountains of Appalachia.
Joan Erdesky, 1958-2025, A Founding Member of SMT, Performing at Drum ’N’ Splash 2024.
Joan and Amelia playing Odaiko at Shangö Matsuri, our 1st Anniversary Celebration, April 2024.
We Remember
Joan Erdesky, 1958-2025
SMT Founding Member
In May of 2025, Joan Erdesky finally lost her extended battle with Cancer, peacefully passing from this world surrounded by her loving family on May 14th, 2025 at her home. She was born on February 10, 1958, in Carmel-By-The-Sea, CA. She was the sixth of seven children born to Lt. Col. Joseph L. Erdesky and Virginia M. Erdesky. Joan is survived by her husband Roger Lyle and identical twin daughters, Charlotte Enfield and Juliette (Tom) Buell and two well-loved cats, Sunny Boy and Cherie.
Joan was a Founding Member of Shangö Mountain Taiko. She was part of the original cohort that came forward in February 2023 to participate in our Debut at Morgan Arts Council’s Sakura Matsuri event in April 2023. She was one of the very best of us, displaying willingness, curiosity, adaptability, and a joyful Taiko Spirit! She was one of the first to master Renshu and Matsuri Daiko when they were completely new songs to our group. She was always an inspiring player and was a source of mentorship and guidance to our newer members as we strived to grow. She was instrumental in helping SMT to get where we are today, and will be treasured and remembered for everything she brought to us.
Beyond Taiko, Joan led a remarkably accomplished life. Her Many accomplishemnts inclided working in Typesetting, Printing & Advertising. She worked as an editor, proofreader, and graphic designer. She also taught graphic design courses at Hagerstown Community College in Hagerstown, MD. Joan worked at the Herald-Mail newspaper in Hagerstown and did page layout and worked for the new Herald-Mail TV station. She applied that expertise to enhance her husband’s enterprise, Motorcycle Xcitement! She was a volunteer beginning in her youth as a Candy Striper, and later with The Valley Co-op in Hagerstown, MD, The Washington County Commission for Women, Habitat for Humanity, and Hospice. She volunteered for the Star Community Center at the Historic Star Theatre WV in Berkeley Springs WV and served as Treasurer.
The family has entrusted Joan’s care to Kelso-Cornelius Funeral Home in McConnellsburg, PA. Online condolences may be expressed at www.kelso-corneliusfuneralhome.com. In lieu of flowers, Joan has requested that memorial contributions be made to her favorite charity, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS at www.doctorswithoutborders.org.
A celebration of Joan’s life will be held on July 12 at their Farm. Shangö Mountain Taiko is honored to be invited to play in celebration of a rich full life, well lived, and well remembered. Yassai!
Shangö Mountain Taiko was born from Berkeley Spring’s World Percussion Group Shangö Percussion. Facilitator Kurt Griffith has a great enthusiasm for Taiko, and launched the project out of a desire to have more people to play Taiko with! In 2023, Morgan Arts Council’s Sakura Matsuri Japanese Spring Festival provided the perfect opportunity to recruit players and launch the project. We debuted at the festival event on Saturday, April 29th, 2023.
We have since gone on to perform at Bringing in the May Farie Festival, The World Association of Show Marching Bands in Buckhannon WV, the Historic Star Theater’s Anuual Love-a-Palooza Performing Arts Benefit, at local and regional schools and libraries, and are continually training and studying Taiko!
We are trying to do something audacious and maybe a little crazy – launching one of the very few (to our knowledge) rural, small town community taiko groups in America! We hope you'll come play with us and expereince Taiko!
We are accepting new trainees! We’re always looking for people who are interesed in learning Taiko and perhaps joining the Shangö Mountain Taiko Team - no experience required!!! - just enthusiasim and willingness to practice and study - and sweat a little! So please come out to a training date, workshop, or catch us at an event and and cheer us on. We’ll take your information, or Sign Up for our Mail List using the Signup Form.
It’ll be the best workout you'll ever love.
SMT Members and Trainees performing at Shangö Matsuri, our 1st Anniversary Celebration, April 2024.
2025 Upcoming Events
Drum ‘N’ Splash 2025
World Percussion Fesival
Taiko Workshops with Kurt
Wed-Sun, July 2-6, 2025
Four Quarters Interfaith Sanctuary, Artemas, PA
Find out more here.
Introduction To Taiko “BOOM” Camp
Saturday, August 16, 2024, 12:00-3:00PM
The Ice House, Community Room, 2nd Floor*
138 Independence Street, Corner of Independence & Mercer
Berkeley Springs, WV 25411
It’s a Taiko “BOOM” Camp! Come experience Big Drums, Big Beats, and shouting in Japanese. All Ages and Skill Levels are Welcome! No Experience Required!
Free Open Workshop | Donations Accepted!
Click Here to Find Out More
We typically train on the 2nd & 4th Tuesdays.
We often add a extra session or two if we’re prepping for a gig or event.
All are welcome to come train with us! Just RSVP and show up! – we’ll put you behind a drum. Please join our Mailing List below to get notifications of our schedule and other Taiko news!
Full Training & Events Calendar
The Heartbeat Drums of Japan
Taiko are the amazing, impressive, and wonderfully powerful heartbeat drums of Japan. Taiko literally means “Big Drum,” but also refers to kumi-daiko, the ensemble group drumming growing in popularity over the last half century. Borrowing on thousands of years of tradition, taiko groups are now taking the style worldwide. Taiko promises to be the first native Japanese music to spread through the world. Taiko has been spreading in North America since its introduction in the 1960s by the “Father of North American Taiko,” Seiichi Tanaka. You may have seen Taiko performed at a Cherry Blossom Festival or an Asian Arts event, or seen the world-renowned Kodo, the electrifying DrumTAO or our regional Taiko groups Miyake Taiko, The Mark H Taiko Connection (MHTX), Nen Daiko, or Pittsburgh Taiko.
Learn more about Japanese Taiko Drumning on The Taiko Page.
Shangö Taiko Player & Facilitator Kurt Griffith is very comitted to cultivating more local Taiko players. More players, more fun, more DON! Shangö Percussion had been incorporating Taiko sound into their worldbeat jams during the later years before COVID, and it was great fun! We’d like to share this powerful and expressive drum tradition with you.
In additon to regulalry training, SMT offers Open Taiko Workshops in Berkley Springs to two to three times a year. We’ve been jamming with Shenandoah Rhythm Jam and are now focued on establising Shangö Mountain Taiko as one of the rare small-town community taiko goups, here in the Appalachian foothills.
Shangö Mountain Taiko’s Founding Members pose after our debut at MAC Sakura Matsuri , April 2023.
We debuted our first Taiko Performance at the Morgan Arts Council’s Cherrry Blossom Festival on April 29th, 2023, to tremendous community approval. Since February 2023, we recruited & have been training players to make up the Taiko Team. We have taken up the Group Name Shangö Mountain Taiko [ Shangö Yama Daiko ], which references our Mountain Town and honors the lineage of the original world percussion group, Shangö Percussion. We performed our second event at Bringing in the May 2023, in Berkeley Springs State Park.
in July of 2023 we performed at the World Association of Marching Show Bands 2023 Championship in Buckhannon, WV It was our first road trip, first steet festival, first Parade, and first time on a float - and we had a blast! Our thanks to the organizers for the invitation, and to WV Wesleyan College for their hospitality.
We chose to continue to practice and play taiko beyond our debut MAC event into the future, launching one of the very few (to our knowledge) rural/small town community taiko groups in America! We are hoping this delicate cherry blossom of a group will take root and grow.
In April 2024, we celebrated our First Anniversary with Shangö Matsuri, part performance / part party with a small, but entusiastic and appeciative house. We debuted our current traniees, two new songs, and our new-to-us O-Daiko! It was an absolute blast! we plan to keep thumping on for another year - and beyond! Gambatte!.
We hope you'll come play with us and experience the profound heartbeat of Japanese Taiko!
Our gratitude for the support of the Morgan Arts Council, Black Cat Music Cooperative, Taiko Community Alliance, and Fantastic Realities Studio.
Very special thanks goes out to percussionist and Shakuhachi Master Bobby Seigetsu Avstreih for dropping that first pebble in the pond at the Morgan Arts Council, and to Eddy and Hiroko Rubin for that first invitation. Domo Arigato Gozaimashita!
Shangö Mountain Taiko performing at Bringing in the May, May 2023, Berkeley Springs, WV.
This list is for notifications and information for organizing Shangö Percussion's Taiko Team. Emails will be exclusively used for group announcements of practice & performance times and dates, taiko information, and learning materials. This list is private and will not be shared with any outside entity. Renshu aimasu! See you at practice
We Still Need Your Help!
Shangö’s small 17" Eisa-Odaiko and his “Big Brother”, an 21" Okinawan Nagado Chu-Daiko.
Due to the drop off in attendance and participation... we don't really need new drums at the present time. So for now, we are suspending the Drum Fund Raiser to focus on Recruitment, Rebuilding & Retraining the group. Truthfully, right now we need players more than we need more drums!
Of course, as a still new, (very) small community Taiko group in a small, rural Applaachian town, we pretty much still need... well, everything. Renting rehearsal space, copies, printing, gas money to get to gigs, advertising, lumber for stands ... and when the time comes, more drums! Taiko Drums are still scary expensive!
We'll still gratefully accept your donations, and thank you so much. However, the grant and forming a 501(3)c Non-profit process will have to wait. Nothing but grattitude for the continuing support of the Taiko Community Alliance. They are all kinds of awesome and do so much to support Taiko in America!
Domo Arigato Gozaimashita to everyone that’s helped us out!
Click here for Training & Reference Materials, Docs & Audio Files
If you want to learn more about Taiko, Visit our Taiko Page
if you are interested in additional workshops, regular classes in this dynamic and expressive Japanese Drumming art, or joining Shangö Mountain Taiko, please contact us.
Help Us Out!
Being a new community group, with no actual income, we need pretty much everything. Taiko Drums in particular, are really expensive! Domo arigato gozaimasu for however you can help!
HEALTH GUIDANCE
The safety of our drum community is always our first priority. We still recommend to please take all appropriate health precautions and practice good hygiene and steps to prevent illness. If you’ve tested COVID-positive, feeling unwell, or need to isolate, no problem! It's absolutely okay to say home and miss one. We certainly understand, and we do want to protect each other. Recover, get healthy, and we’ll see you next time!
Drum safe! Yassai!