Festival Schedule

Emcee: Sojin Kim

Taiko is Japanese drumming — large barrel-shaped drums played standing, with the whole body behind every strike. Brought to the U.S. by Japanese immigrants and reimagined here starting in the 1950s and ’60s, taiko has grown into its own American art form: a blend of rhythm, movement, and storytelling that draws on tradition while constantly pushing it forward.

Roy and PJ Hirabayashi co-founded San Jose Taiko in 1973 and built it, over three decades, into one of the country’s most influential taiko ensembles, fusing traditional rhythms with global musical influences to help create what’s now recognized as a distinct Asian American art form. In 2011 the National Endowment for the Arts named them National Heritage Fellows — the nation’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts — for a lifetime spent teaching, mentoring, and shaping the field nationally, work they continue today through initiatives like PJ’s TaikoPeace.

Ballico Taiko is a Japanese-style drumming group based at Ballico-Cressey Elementary Community Charter Schools. Students from third through eighth grade take part in an afterschool club program, with weekly taiko sessions also held for Transitional Kindergarten through second grade and for a special education class — close to 150 students in all each week. Alongside traditional Japanese festival songs, the group performs pieces by contemporary taiko composers from around the world. Its performers have taken the stage at local farmers’ markets, multicultural festivals, Northern California Girl Scout events, a Boy Scout campout, Disneyland, North American Taiko Conferences, the Fresno Regional Arts Conference, and multicultural events across Modesto and Merced.