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 Barrington Taiko Group

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Barrington Taiko Group

The Barrington Taiko Group, performed at the 2014 Governor's Awards for the Arts and Arts Day luncheon.

The Barrington Taiko Group is from Barrington Elementary School in Upper Arlington, Ohio. It is comprised of children in grades 3, 4 and 5 who rehearse once each week with their music specialists, Angela Brooks and Deborah Graham-Gibson. Membership is open to any Barrington student in grades 3, 4 or 5 who would like to join, and the group has grown to nearly 50 performers in its two full years. The Barrington Taiko Group has performed at the Dublin Taiko Gala, the Columbus International Festival, the Upper Arlington State of the City Address and at special school concerts.

The Barrington Taiko Group was founded in February 2012 as the culmination of a music specialist’s dream, a generous surprise, and an extension of a terrifi c artist-in-residence experience. Deborah Graham-Gibson had been thinking about Taiko drumming for a few years, and wanted to start a group at Barrington.

Angela Brooks joined the Barrington faculty in 2010 and concurred that the idea had merit, but shared the puzzlement of how to begin. In 2011, Graham-Gibson was selected for the Columbus Symphony Elementary Educator Award. That award included an unexpected and generous stipend, and both music specialists agreed that the timing was perfect to call Eric Paton, a national Taiko drumming expert and assistant professor of music at Capital University. His artist residency helped to ignite the love of Japanese culture and Taiko drumming for the children, and the Barrington Taiko Group was born.

The teachers’ goal each year is to add to the children’s repertoire of authentic Japanese children’s songs to sing and Taiko compositions of increasing diffi culty. The Taiko pieces you will hear today include “Ikari No Kaminari” by Eric Paton, “Chiba Canon” by Deborah Graham- Gibson, and “Hiryu Sandan Gaeshi” by Daihachi Oguchi. The children will sing and play recorders to accompany the traditional songs “Sakura,” “Hama chi dori” and “Amefuri.” The children and teachers are honored to perform for you today and hope you enjoy their music.