AIRMW Presents: K.A. – a solo taiko concert by Kioto Aoki

AIRMW artist, staff & Tsukasa Taiko leader Kioto Aoki presents two evenings of a solo taiko performance at the Edge Theater. Accentuating the elongated nuances of sonic and physical duration, Aoki builds movement and sound in a continuous, concert length set.

Friday, April 17 @ 7pm

Saturday, April 18 @ 7pm

Free admission

Kioto ​Aoki is the 5th generation of the Toyoakimoto house, an okiya (geisha house) performing arts family from Tokyo with roots dating back to the Edo period. Standing on the professional stage from the age of 7, and studying under father Tatsu Aoki (Toyoaki Sanjuro), she continues the family legacy as musician on taiko and tsuzumi, and using her stage name Toyoaki Chitose (豊秋千東勢) when on shamisen. Working within traditional and experimental contexts, Aoki sustains this traditional music lineage traversing geographical and cultural boundaries.

Aoki's playing is informed by the Japanese aesthetics of ma and emphasizes the melodic phrasing of space and choreography to reorient the notion of percussion as mere rhythm. Her stoic, durational explorations elicit soundscapes that oscillate between the organic textures of live performance and sonic nuances of cyclical, droning sustain. Aoki maintains a balance of retaining the artistic and aesthetic integrity of traditional Japanese music with a contemporary sensibility that extends beyond the measures of cultural preservation bringing taiko to the contemporary artistic ecologies of music, sound and performance.