KODO, a Japanese Taiko ensemble, performed on Friday in the Kresge Auditorium as part of their 2017 DADAN tour.
The group, composed of thirty people, will perform in twenty-two cities between January and March. Their performance in Greencastle marks their only appearance in Indiana.
The performance was part of the Green Guest series which brings in artists to perform concerts throughout the year. The series is funded by Judson and Joyce Green who made a fifteen million dollar donation in 2013 to DePauw’s School of Music.
Heather Sloan, a faculty percussionist who specializes in World Music, had previously seen the group perform over a decade ago, and was extremely excited to hear that they would be performing at DePauw.
“It was one of the concerts that really cemented my desire to look at things outside of the European classical music genre because the discipline, the choreography, the rhythm and the vibrations of the drums was something that I had not experienced before, it was amazing” Sloan said.
The tour is the seventh installment of DADAN, which translates to “drumming men” and features only the young male performers in the group. However, the group involves males and females of all ages, ranging from twenty-one to sixty-four.
Junior Mei Fujisato, an international student from Japan, said she was looking forward to the performance because it was something different. “They usually bring soloists...relatively small groups of people, but this one was big. They have to bring a bunch of drums,” said Fujisato.
As a student of the School of Music who plays violin, Fujisato said she was also excited to see how the group presented their music. “It gives me a lot of inspiring ideas of how I present music to someone who is not familiar with my music, and I think it’s just really a lot of learning experience,” Fujisato said.
KODO gave nearly 4,000 of their performances under their “One Earth” theme, which, as the ensemble explains on their website, deals with transcending boundaries created by culture and language, and focuses on the bond shared between human beings.
While this idea resonated with students like Fujisato from the School of Music, it impacted students of all backgrounds. First-year Claire Mohney said that while she doesn’t normally go to musical performances, she felt this ensemble was incredibly unique. “I’ve never seen anything like it. I thought it was incredible how they could tell a story using their instruments,” Mohney said.
Although Sloan had previously seen the ensemble on tour, she was again moved by Friday’s performance. “For me it was so nice to reconnect with that beautiful energy and those drums” said Sloan. “They’re so disciplined, they put so much energy into their craft and they’re just at the peak of ability-physical, musical, dramatic, and it’s just such a treat to be in the same room as them.”
This past week was full of auditions for the School of Music and Fujisato stated that she believed that by bringing in artists such as KODO, the school could attract a lot of prospective students. “By presenting what the school is capable of doing, even if it’s in the middle of Indiana, that attracts a lot of people” Fujisato said.
Despite the pouring rain, KODO performed a two hour show to a sold out audience on Friday. Mohney explained that she thought the show brought together so many students, faculty, and Greencastle community members because it was something completely different. “Being in the middle of Indiana,” Mahoney said, “We don’t get exposed to different cultures enough and this performance was something that we’re not very familiar with.”