CLICK HERE for the Legacy Shangö Percussion Site
Bringing the Heartbeat of Japanese Taiko to the Mountains of Appalachia.
Shango Mountain Taiko debuted at Morgan Arts Council’s Sakura Matsuri Japanese Spring Festival 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, and are continuting to train and study Taiko!
We have done something audacious and 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
Taiko Performance
Love-A-Palooza Regional Talent Show & Benefit
NEW DATE - Saturday, April 5, 7:00 PM
The Historic Star Theater
Berkely Springs, WV
Taiko Performance
Multicultural Night
Thursday, April 10, 6:00 PM
Tuscarora Elementary School
Frederick, MD
Taiko Performance
Bringing in The May Fairie Festival
Sat-Sun, May 17-18, 2025, 12 N-5:00 PM
Taiko Performance & Drum Circles – Saturday & Sunday at Noon
Berkely Springs State Park
Berkeley Springs, WV
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 Percussion was been incorporating Taiko sound into their worldbeat jams during the later years before COVID, and it was great fun! We’d like to share with you this powerful and expressive drum tradition. Shangö Taiko Player & Facilitator Kurt Griffith is very comitted to cultivating more local Taiko players. More players, more fun, more DON!
Kurt has resumed offering Open Taiko Workshops in Berkley Springs after we were forced to suspend activities in sucessive Coronavirus waves. We cautiously restarted our drum activities in 2022, and 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, 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!