ACF 1217: YAMATO - THE DRUMMERS OF JAPAN to perform in New Jersey on November 18th

 YAMATO – THE DRUMMERS OF JAPAN

Bring Drums, Some Created from 400 Year-Old Trees,

to NJPAC’s Prudential Hall

When: Friday, November 18, 2011 at 8pm

Where: NJPAC’s Prudential Hall

1 Center Street, Newark, NJ 07102

Yamato – The Drummers of Japan, is an explosive troupe of Japanese taiko drummers that combines a sense of drama with the primal power of percussion, producing one of the world’s most physical forms of music. Yamato, which takes the stage of NJPAC’s Prudential Hall on Friday, November 18 at 8pm, performs with various sizes of drums, some of which are created from trees as old as 400 years, and adds timpani and flute for an evening of highly charged rhythm—from the patter of raindrops to the hammered-out beat of rolling thunder.

Tickets are $35-$70, and are available by telephone at 1-888-466-5722, at the NJPAC Box Office at One Center Street in downtown Newark, or at www.njpac.org.  This performance is part of the Capital One Variety Series, made possible in part by Capital One, New Jersey State Council on the Arts and Discover Jersey Arts.

Click here to watch a video of Yamato or go to http://bit.ly/NJPACYamato

Program Information (subject to change):

暁 Akatsuki (‘The dawn’)

空回里 Kara-mawari (‘Round and round’)

壱徹 Ittetsu (‘Be stubborn’)

無我夢中 Muga-Muchuu (‘Ecstatic enthusiasm’)

楽打 Rakuda (‘Merrily beat’)

有頂天 Ucho-ten (‘To be in rapture’)

遠音 Tone (‘The sound from faraway’)

我楽多　Garakuta (‘Junk’)

我武者羅 Gamushara (‘Bullheadedness’)

About the Artist:

Japanese Taiko drumming group Yamato was born in Yamato-no-kuni, the present day Nara prefecture, in 1993 by Masa Ogawa.  Its headquarters is in Asuka village in Nara, the “birthplace of Japanese culture.” The company tours the world, performing 150-200 times a year, and has grown from four to fifteen members.  For the members of the company, comprised of both men and women, drumming is a way of life. They start the day with a 10 kilometer run, followed by weight training for the rest of the morning. They then practice drumming together in the afternoon and continue with individual practice until bedtime.