When Covid forced taiko classes to shift online in March 2020, I taught Shunpuu to the Rocky Mountain Taiko Ensemble for the first crack at online teaching. It was such a learning curve to abruptly abandon the yearly lesson plans and switch to teach music over the internet with everyone playing on their own practice drums inside their own homes.
Earth Celebration also moved online, and requested people around the world to play their Kodo One Earth Music on video for the festival. Some of my taiko friends who learned Shunpuu got together safely in a park, and we recorded 5 tracks which were overlaid into a single video to make it look like we were playing together. Can you find us in the compilation video?? It's so tiny! But what an honour to play with so many groups around the world, including KODO!
Thank you Kodo for offering your music to the world, especially a Spring piece like Shunpuu, and also for including the world in your Earth Celebration. One day I hope to travel to Sado and see you in person.
Here is our submission video, which is actually 5 different tracks that are stitched together to make it look like a single video. During editing, I was amazed at how much the sun moved during that hour, and what a difference it made to the lighting for the video tracks! However, it was the safest way to film our little group, because of physical distancing requirements. Another fun fact: I am playing both fue parts, but in the video I am actually just half-pretending to play and the real audio tracks were recorded in my studio along after the fact. There is a lot of research right now about the safety of wind instruments, and it is currently not recommended to play flute in person, due to the risk of the virus. Here is the video we did: https://youtu.be/NQh9MXLIpjc
The final collaboration video from Kodo, including an introduction from the composer! https://youtu.be/hnZlJ80z2_s
