Updated to include video.

Story and photos by 

Annie Wilson
UW News Lab

Students, teachers and family members gathered together to watch the On Ensemble perform at Chase Lake Community School’s assembly Thursday afternoon. Their presentation, along with a student performance, was the finale to a four-day music educational outreach put on by the Edmonds Center for the Arts, and funded through the Hazel Miller Foundation and the Tulalip Tribes.

The music group worked with Chase Lake sixth-grade students throughout the week, teaching them drum patterns and dance from their music genre.

Though they consider their music art form “limitless,” artist Shoji Kameda defined it as “world fusion from a Taiko centric perspective.” They incorporate traditional Japanese drumming (Taiko) and blend it with other music genres including afro-beats, jazz-fusion and electronics. “We just try to bring it all together and make one big messy sound that hopefully people like,” Kameda said.

The crowd’s positive reactions to their performance filled the room with cheers and laughter.

“It’s been pretty magical actually, to watch it all happen,” said Lisa Nakama, the Edmonds Center for the Arts Education Coordinator.  “The arts are a way to reach kids who maybe academics isn’t their thing; maybe something in the arts is.”

Two sixth-grade teachers, Lisa Ryan and Kim Martin, also recognized the powerful impact the musicians had on their students. Both said the children grew more confident, as well as collaborating and supporting one another better.

“It’s been an incredible experience; it really has,” Ryan said. “They are amazing guys. So talented. So good with the kids. The students just think they are superstars.”

“It makes the whole day exciting,” Martin added. “We have had the best attendance rate ever.”

Additionally, both sixth-grade teachers acknowledged what great role models the musicians were. The male students especially had a powerful response.

“The boys are saying, ‘Man, that’s who I want to be when I grow up. I want to be just like that guy…’ They were impressed by a guy who’s an artist who’s also really, really cool and they were nice to them too,” Ryan said. It was also powerful to see the students be successful playing music and proud to share it with others, she noted.

Kameda acknowledged that one of the great things about Taiko is it doesn’t take that long to make great sounds: “You just pick up a stick and you hit the drum and it’s like wow! I made music! I think it’s very empowering for kids in that way… It just shows them that it’s not that hard to make music, you know. It’s innate in every human being; we are all musicians. We just have to find the right instrument.”

Over the three-day music workshop, the On Ensemble taught the six graders a festival rhythm drum pattern. Since this music piece traditionally incorporates a dance, the students choreographed their own with movements from their everyday life including a basketball shot, “ABC’s, ” opening books, and writing.

The On Ensemble will continue playing their music in Edmonds Friday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m. at the Edmonds Center for the Arts.

Annie Wilson, a 2010 graduate of Edmonds-Woodway High School, is a student in the University of Washington Department of Communication News Laboratory.