REDUCTION
TAIKO LEGACY &
Thank you to everyone who made it out to Taiko Legacy 21 and Reduction 10 last year!
Save the date for this year's presentation:
December 21 & December 22, 2025
TAIKO LEGACY 22 & REDUCTION 11
TAIKO LEGACY 21
Taiko Legacy is one of the largest taiko concerts in the midwest built on the efforts of community activism in Asian American and Japanese American performing arts across the country. Led by Chicago’s renowned taiko group, Tsukasa Taiko presents a conceptually diverse and dynamic musical performance full of original arrangements that pay homage to ozashiki (geisha chamber music), ohayashi (classical/folk/theater music), and matsuri taiko (festival taiko music).
Taiko Legacy returns for the 21st edition of this annual concert rooted in the traditions of ozashiki (geisha chamber music), ohayashi (classical/folk/theater music), and matsuri taiko (festival taiko music). The performative arrangements of original compositions from Tsukasa Taiko recontextualize the cultural traditions within contemporary ecologies of art, music and theater. Led by professional taiko artists and the longstanding Gintenkai community performance ensemble from Tsukasa Taiko, Taiko Legacy 21 also feature next generation youth members who form a vital part of this ongoing legacy; alongside guests Hyakkyou Fukuhara from Tokyo, and Melody Takata and GenRyu Arts from San Francisco.
REDUCTION 10
Reduction is a theatrical presentation with a goal to construct a bridge between tradition and modernity in a single performance and define the contemporary Asian American and Japanese American musical experience. Accentuating the potential and artistry of refined subdued taiko performance, Reduction presents an influx of free fluid improvisational compositions amongst the steady melodies and rhythms of traditional Japanese instrumentation.
Asian Improv aRts Midwest celebrates a decade of Reduction, reinterpreting the possibilities of theatrical taiko emphasizing the refinement of musical silence and improvisational artistry. The Reduction series presents a convergence of classical and contemporary musical traditions, intertwining traditional Japanese instrumentation with performative experimentation. For Reduction 10 Tsukasa Taiko is joined by special guests Hyakkyou Fukuhara (Tokyo, Japan), Nicole Mitchell, Hamid Drake, Michael Zerang, Yoshinojo Fujima & Ikunojo Fujima of Shubukai to continue cultivating a contemporary artistic vernacular of the Japanese musical experience.
This year's pre-show* features the final public presentation of Kioto Aoki & Helen Nagata's apprenticeship for Ethnic and Folk Arts Master/Apprentice Program (MAP) from the Illinois Arts Council for 2024.
*This program partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.
Taiko Legacy 21 / Reduction 10 are programs of Asian Improv aRts Midwest (AIRMW) and are supported in part by general operating support received from the Illinois Arts Council Agency; the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Alphawood Foundation, Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), the Walder Foundation, Joyce Foundation, and the National Endowment of Arts.
