Japanese Drummers 'Yamato' Come To Gainsville With MATSURI 11/25 At The Phillips Center

Bringing an exciting and youthful energy to traditional Japanese drumming, YAMATO, The Drummers of Japan will perform their brilliant work "Matsuri" on Wednesday, November 25 at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.

YAMATO was founded by Masa Ogawa in 1993 in Nara, "the land of Yamato," which is said to be the birthplace of Japanese culture. Based in Asuka Village, Nara Prefecture, the group travels around the globe with Japan's traditional Taiko drums.

The word Matsuri, which can be easily translated as "festival," evokes the work's intimacy and audience involvement, while expressing the nuances of "celebration" and "carnival." Once a traditional Japanese ritual, Matsuri involved an exchange of human energy as people gathered around soulful drums, dancing and singing.

In "Matsuri," the performers of YAMATO put their very souls into unique instruments whose sound stirs the hearts of people everywhere. Their interpretation is infused with the idea that the drumbeat, like the heartbeat, is the very pulse of life.

Since its formation 16 years ago, YAMATO has performed for more than a million people, giving over 2,000 performances in about a dozen different countries, and yet the performers' enthusiasm remains undiminished. They continue to travel with several dozen large and small drums (including an Odaiko made from a huge tree over 400 years old), displaying the instruments' versatility and instinctive appeal, both in extemporized street performances and in concert halls holding several thousand people.

Original in its music and expression, YAMATO is a never-to-be-forgotten experience, inspiring and intensely physical, with a beat resonating from the delicate tapping of falling rain to explosions of rhythmic exhilaration.

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