This panel discussion, moderated by Professor Deborah Wong (Professor of Music, University of California, Riverside, Board of Directors for the Society for Ethnomusicology and the Alliance for California Traditional Arts) presented Ms. Melody Takata (Founder and Head Instructor for San Francisco’s Gen Taiko), Mr. Tatsu Aoki (Founder and Executive Producer of the Annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival, Artistic Director of JASC Tsukasa Taiko) and Hide Yoshihashi (Founder and Head Instructor of JASC Tsukasa Taiko) in discussion that covered the last 10 years of developments in the taiko community of Chicago, its growth, and its national presence.

The 10th Annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival which preceded this event opened to a capacity crowd of 300.

For more information contact the Asian Improv aRts Midwest (AIRMW) organization at (708) 386 9349 or infoairmw@airmw.org; or visit their site: www.airmw.org.