Bios of the members

Prior to her return to Colorado, she was a performing member of San Jose Taiko, a professional performing taiko group, from 1988 through July 1995. This group toured across the US (including Carnegie Hall) and Japan. 

Her start was with Denver Taiko (1979-88), which included studies with groups from Japan (KODO, Oedo Sukeroku, and Ondekoza). Other instruments she studied during this time were koto, shamisen and minyo/dance in Denver. 

With a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education, Toni has taught western music in the public schools and currently teaches private lessons on saxophone and clarinet in addition to taiko. She also has several recordings and compositions to her credit.
 

Lance B. Acker, whose true profession is a jazz reed man (including 21 years with the Queen City Jazz Band), has been playing taiko and takebue (Japanese flute) since 1996. He has studied the bamboo flute with Marco Lienhard (of Ondekoza and Taikoza). Lance holds a Master's degree in Music Performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Balancing taiko performances with his Acker Jazztet gigs, as well as a full roster of private woodwind students can sometimes be a challenge!.

Junko Shigeta is originally from Japan where she started playing the koto (Japanese harp) as a little girl. Ms. Shigeta received her "shihan" (title/certificate for teaching and performing koto) in Japan and moved to the United States in the late 1980s. She lived in Los Angeles for two years and has been in the Denver area for the last ten years. She organized and is the leader of Koto Colorado, a koto ensemble (6-8 members) that performs at schools and festivals throught the state. Junko-san also has a full roster of koto private students. She has shared the stage with taiko many times with her koto, and recently has become part of the taiko performance with Taiko with Toni.
 

DeDe Torizawa is a current and long lime member of Denver Taiko (since 1976) and has been performing with Taiko with Toni since 1998. Besides taiko, Ms. Torizawa's Japanese cultural training includes classical dance, tea ceremony, shamisen and koto.

Joyce Nakata Kim is one of the founding members of Denver Taiko with whom she performed from 1976 until 1987. She moved to California and became a member of San Jose Taiko for two years. Joyce returned to Colorado in 1994 and has been performing with Taiko with Toni since 1998.