DRUM TAO Program Notes
Table of Contents
Event Details
Acknowledgement of Land
The Program
The Company
CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
presents
DRUM TAO
The Best
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, January 27, 2026
Eisenhower Auditorium
The program runs approximately 2 hours, including a 15-minute intermission.
Support provided by
Penn State International Dance Ensemble Endowment
Accessibility services supported by
Sidney and Helen S. Friedman Endowment
A grant from the University Park Fee Board makes Penn State student prices possible.
Acknowledgement of Land
The Penn State University campuses are located on the original homelands of the Erie; Haudenosaunee (Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, Seneca, and Tuscarora); Lenape (Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe, and Stockbridge-Munsee); Shawnee (Absentee, Eastern, and Oklahoma); Susquehannock; and Wahzhazhe (Osage) Nations.
As a land grant institution, we acknowledge and honor the traditional caretakers of these lands and strive to understand and model their responsible stewardship. We also acknowledge the longer history of these lands and our place in that history.
Written by PSU Educational Equity in collaboration with the Indigenous Peoples Student Association and the Indigenous Faculty and Staff Alliance
Why do we make an acknowledgement?
The Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State gathers people together to foster communities, learn from our unique differences, and participate in civic engagement through the arts. We leverage the act of acknowledging the land to spark curiosity and conversation about our nation’s past, present, and future. This ongoing process can change our learning and healing journey as individuals and as a nation, and it is not meant to be resolved. We are not checking a box; we are living in the questions and the possibilities.
Visit Land Acknowledgment for more information.
The Program
The Songlist
“Forest”
“Thunder”
“Mugenkyo XII” (夢幻響Ⅻ)
“Wagakki Band II” (和楽器バンドⅡ)
“Kagura II”
“Super Beat”
“Meguri” | “Eternal Cycle of Rebirth” (循)
“Silver Flower Field”
“R Kagura”
“Do Future”
“Tenkyo” (天響)
“Rain”
“Iki”
“Queen”
“Kabuto” (海武士)
“Encore” (アンコール)
“Yosakoi”
Program is subject to change.
The Company
The Performers
Suito Yoshinori
Harasaki Taro
Kawazu Haruki
Sonada Kyota
Sato Koki
Azami Takumi
Itakura Rui
Minamisaka Kazunari
Sasaki Shima
Sakaguchi Shoko
Sakuma Seika
Lighting technician
Ryo Harada
Sound technician
Kenichi Horiuchi
Production manager
Matthew Osier
Marketing and PR
Soloshoe Communications, LLC
DRUM TAO’s presence is created through phenomenal performances and expressions consisting of the incomparable wadaiko drums and the beautiful melodies of Japanese flutes and harps. It is the quintessential Japanese entertainment for a new generation that completely surpasses expectations.
In February 2016, the group’s Off-Broadway shows in New York were completely sold out, with a reporter for Newsweek stating, “The highly acclaimed debut of DRUM TAO in Broadway will represent not only Japanese entertainment but Japan itself.”
The long-running production Mangekyo started in Tokyo in 2017. The night-time entertainment event aimed at international tourists became widely popular and was later expanded to a run of shows over six months in 2018. The show was performed in their own exclusive theater throughout April 2019 until the 2020 Olympics Games in Tokyo.
In 2017, DRUM TAO made its major recording debut with Universal Music with a compilation of their work of the past twenty-five years. The release ranked as one of the top three in the iTunes world album lists in five countries.
In 2018, DRUM TAO performed in the opening ceremony of Japonisms 2018 in Paris. The artists also co-starred with the Bolshoi Ballet as the opening act of Japan Year in Russia at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
DRUM TAO was awarded Outstanding Cultural Contribution from Oita prefecture; Culture Creators Award from the city of Taketa in Oita prefecture; and the sixth Japan Tourism Agency Commissioner Award and Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Award from the Japanese government.
DRUM TAO is represented exclusively in North America by
IMG Artists
7 W. Fifty-fourth St., New York, NY 10019
212-994-3533
dshultz@imgartists.com
www.imgartists.com
For more information about DRUM TAO, please visit www.drum-tao.com.