Asian Improv aRts Midwest

Sonic Pavilion Festival

Kioto Aoki, Sonorous Admittings 

About the work:
Sonorous Admittings is a sonic landscape that accentuates the taiko drum’s most fundamental and captivating element: acoustic resonance. The simple phrasing played by the artist on the odaiko (larger taiko) and smaller shime taiko enunciate the textural and tonal shifts of assonant sound between silence, and recreates what it feels like to play the odaiko and be completely surrounded by thunderous reverberations.
About the artist:
Kioto Aoki is a visual artist and musician descending from the Toyoakimoto performing arts family in Tokyo with roots dating back to the Edo period. Studying under her Tokyo-born father, Aoki is carrying on the family lineage in Chicago as a taiko artist while also playing shamisen and tsuzumi. She plays in both traditional and contemporary musical contexts and is active within the experimental and creative music communities in Chicago and the Bay Area.

Sonic Pavilion Festival is developed by Experimental Sound Studio and is presented by Millennium Park and the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

Find more information about Sonic Pavilion Festival on ESS website.

Sonic Pavilion Festival

Kioto Aoki, Sonorous Admittings 

About the work:
Sonorous Admittings is a sonic landscape that accentuates the taiko drum’s most fundamental and captivating element: acoustic resonance. The simple phrasing played by the artist on the odaiko (larger taiko) and smaller shime taiko enunciate the textural and tonal shifts of assonant sound between silence, and recreates what it feels like to play the odaiko and be completely surrounded by thunderous reverberations.
About the artist:
Kioto Aoki is a visual artist and musician descending from the Toyoakimoto performing arts family in Tokyo with roots dating back to the Edo period. Studying under her Tokyo-born father, Aoki is carrying on the family lineage in Chicago as a taiko artist while also playing shamisen and tsuzumi. She plays in both traditional and contemporary musical contexts and is active within the experimental and creative music communities in Chicago and the Bay Area.

Sonic Pavilion Festival is developed by Experimental Sound Studio and is presented by Millennium Park and the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

Find more information about Sonic Pavilion Festival on ESS website.

Anderson Japanese Gardens Monthly Lecture Series

Toyoaki Shamisen: Japanese Music Lecture and Demonstration with Ozashiki dance and Ohayashi

No Cost to Attend | Pre-Registration Required

In this lecture, you will learn about the unique tradition of Tokyo geisha music.  Toyoaki Shamisen, led by award-winning Toyoaki Sanjuro (aka Tatsu Aoki), is one of the three core groups that comprise the traditional performing arts at Asian Improv aRts Midwest. Our outreach presentations provide lectures with performance of traditional ozashiki geisha house(chamber) and Ohayashi music with ozashiki dance. While popular geisha shamisen music like Hauta and Kouta focus mostly on singing, Ozashiki shamisen is largely instrumental and used mostly as interlude music before the featured geisha ladies appear, or to fill time in large parties and gatherings.

Register now to reserve your seat.