To launch the ensemble’s 27th season, Japanese taiko ensemble Nagata Shachu will be remounting KAZÉ (wind). The show, a collaboration with master shinobue player Toki Tatara, was a sold-out hit in 2022.
KAZÉ will be going on a six-city tour, beginning October 4 in Beloeil, Quebec, before heading to Montreal, Ottawa, Kingston, Toronto, and ending in Burlington. The ensemble will hit the stage in Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre on October 10.
Kiyoshi Nagata founded Nagata Shachu in 1998 to not only celebrate the taiko and its traditional repertoire, but also bring the music and instruments into the 21st century with a sense of continual experimentation and evolutionKiyoshi Nagata . Along the way, the ensemble has collaborated with a variety of ensembles and artists, including Esprit Orchestra.
Along with Nagata himself, the current ensemble numbers nine, including Aki Takahashi, Andrew Siu, Kevin He, Atsushi Kato, Tatsuki Shimoda, Brian Liang, Eriko Murata, and Sakura Ariga. We spoke to the master drummer about the organization, and the upcoming concert.
We spoke to Kiyoshi Nagata about the ensemble, and the new season’s opener.
Kiyoshi Nagata & Nagata Shachu: the Interview
Did he imagine, back in 1998, that he’d still be presenting concerts 27 seasons later? “That was a dream when I started,” Nagata says. “I’m quite surprised it actually survived. It was a combination of things.”
Strong support from the Japanese Canadian community is a cornerstone of the ensemble’s success. The other, though, comes from the connections Nagata Shachu has made in the local musical community. As Nagata notes, it’s also about finding the right performers, presenters, and agents.
Forming the musical direction of Nagata Shachu was the result of a process of thought. “There’s a lot of background to this,” Kiyoshi notes.
“The traditional music is not that interesting to watch in concert,” Kiyoshi says. “It was never meant to be performed on stage in its own right.” The music, as he points out, was created to accompany ceremonies and rites of various kinds, not for an audience per se. “We have to create our own original compositions.”
Adding different influences and genres to the musical mix is a natural given the array of cultures represented in Toronto. He says the group is “really fortunate” to be able to collaborate with anyone from an Indian tabla group to a Western orchestra without leaving town.
“A lot of our members have Western musical training as well,” Nagata points out. “We’re able to adapt to Western or European classical music as well.”
The goal is to take the traditional Japanese drums to diverse audiences, and introduce them to a different listening experience with the venerable instrument. “I think people have this image of taiko as very primal, very physical. But, it’s also very musical,” he notes. It’s a difficult instrument to master.
From the 2022 performance:
KAZÉ
“KAZÉ is the title of the concert, which means wind in Japanese,” he says. “We’re inviting back one our favourite guest artists.”
A native of Kyoto, Tatara Toki studied at the municipal music high school of Horikwa, and graduated from the University of Doushisha. She has spent her musical career researching and performing on bamboo flutes, including the shinobue. She is both a recording and performing artist, and is the Director of the Japan Shinobue Association as well as professor at Okayama Niimi Public University. Toki often performs her own compositions for the instrument.
“She’s an incredible flautist,” Nagata says.
KAZÉ adds the three-stringed shamisen to the mix, taking the three traditional Japanese musical instruments into new directions. While a remount, the 2024 version adds new music and details to the performance.
The concert back in 2022 was a success, but one that came at a difficult time — just when audiences were slowly coming back to live performance. The idea of bringing Tatara Toki back to a more robust concert environment was behind the remount.
Touring is a luxury for many ensembles nowadays. “I think it’s the reality of these days,” he says. “In our heyday, we used to tour a lot.” Nagata notes that the instruments alone can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, making moving them anywhere a risk. “We’re very fortunate,” he notes of the funding that has made the fall tour possible.
Later on in the season, in November Nagata Shachu will be performing with another Japanese guest artist, along with a shamisen player, and in March 2025, the season finale sees them collaborate with a Korean ensemble who also blend traditional and contemporary performance.
- Find out more details about the performance of KAZÉ (Wind) in Toronto on October 10 [HERE].
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