TAIKOPROJECT 25th Anniversary Concert Set For Walt Disney Concert Hall

This year, celebrated Japanese American drumming group TAIKOPROJECT celebrates its 25th Anniversary with a special one night only performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Saturday, July 19, 2025, at 7pm, in Los Angeles. The acclaimed group will be joined by GRAMMY® winning Chicanx band, also from Los Angeles, Quetzal ,and multi-instrument soloist Sumie Kaneko, performing vocals, on the koto, and the shamisen.  At the concert, TAIKOPROJECT release their fourth studio album, “25,” as well as an EP they recorded with Quetzal.

Tickets ($35.00 and up) are available starting on May 10, 2025 at www.taikoproject.com or by calling  (213) 268-4011.

TAIKOPROJECT was founded in 2000 in Los Angeles, California by a group of young, emerging taiko drummers, led by Bryan Yamami and Masato Baba.  The group defined a modern American style of Taiko, blending traditional forms with an innovative and fresh aesthetic.  While the instruments themselves come from Japan, much of the energy as a performing art, happened in the United States by groups like TAIKOPROJECT that elevated a folk art to a notable place of concert attractions. 

TAIKOPROJECT first made waves when they became the first American Taiko group to win the prestigious Tokyo International Taiko Contest in 2005, besting all of the Japanese Taiko groups. Then, in quick succession, they were cast in a Mitsubishi Eclipse commercial, the first and only national advertising campaign to prominently feature Taiko. Yamami and his company were the lead creatives on the campaign; later they were featured in both Nike and Target commercials. 

Soon after, they signed with a touring agency, while increasing their Southern California concerts – performing first and regularly at The Ford (formerly the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre). Since then, TAIKOPROJECT has performed at many of the premiere performing arts centers in the country, including the Ordway Center (St. Paul, MN), Meany Hall (Seattle, WA), Mondavi Center (Davis, CA), Tower Theatre (Bend, OR), Hatfield Hall (Terre Haute, IN), Lied Center (Lincoln, NE), Gammage Auditorium (Phoenix, AZ), Cache Valley Center (Logan, UT), Macey Center (Socorro, NM), and the Ferst Center (Atlanta, GA).

TAIKOPROJECT also became one of the mainstays of Los Angeles Music Center On Tour, performing for students and local community centers; these concerts have grown to as many 100 shows annually. TAIKOPROJECT has performed and recorded nationally and internationally with Stevie Wonder, Peter Gabriel, Hans Zimmer, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Squeak E. Clean, Sean Paul, Diplo, as well as international stars such as Greek singer Antonis Remos, Persian singer Mansour, Brazil's Olodum, and Netherlands' Tiesto. 

The group has performed on the 2009 Academy Awards, the 2011 GRAMMY® Awards, the 2018 MTV Music and Movie Awards, NBC's “The Voice,” Syfy's “Face/Off,” “The X-Factor,” Lisa Ling’s “Take Out”  a Max limited series, “Conan,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” “The Late, Late Show with James Corden,”  Ovation TV's “The Art Of,” Food Network's “Iron Chef Gauntlet,“ rock band 30 Seconds to Mars' "Up in the Air" music video, on Paramount Plus/MTV’s Clio and Telly Award-winning AAPI Heritage Month promotions, and performed at Ubisoft Forward 2024 for the “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” game reveal.

In 2021, the Ford Foundation, in association with the J. Paul Getty Trust and the California Community Foundation, recognized TAIKOPROJECT as one of “America’s Cultural Treasures.”  The group was honored with the prestigious Visionary Award from East West Players in 2012.

In 2023, the ensemble was selected for the prestigious Western Arts Alliance Performing Arts Discovery (PAD) program, which promotes a selected group of U.S. performing artists to international programmers and festival directors.  In 2024, they were invited to perform at the Coachella Festival with 88Rising’s Atarashii Gakko and at the iHeartRadio Music Festival that year. Last fall, TAIKOPROJECT was awarded a major three-year grant from the prestigious Perenchio Foundation, because of “their proven track record of artistic excellence, community partnerships, and steady leadership.”

TAIKOPROJECT programs are made possible in part by funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, the Los Angeles County Department of Arts & Culture, the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs, the LA Arts Recovery Fund, the Perenchio Foundation, the MAP Fund (Creative Capital), the Japan Foundation, the Sansei Legacy Fund, the Toyota Giving Circle, AAPIP (Asian American/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy), the James Irvine Foundation, the Union Bank Foundation, as well as our annual BaseBeat donors.

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