Mirai Daiko - Colorado Japanese Drum Ensemble

Mirai Daiko is a professional Japanese Drum ensemble based out of Arvada, CO. The all-women group consists of second, third, and fourth generation Japanese Americans and members of the group include: Keiko, Meg, and Courtney Ozaki, Shannon Umetani, and June Kurobane.

All of Mirai Daiko's members were taught by Gary Tsujimoto and Nancy Ozaki of One World Taiko -- As members of One World Taiko, they performed across the country in venues such as Epcot Center in Orlando, Florida, at the International Taiko Festival in Berkeley, California, and were invited to perform at the North American Taiko Conference, Taiko Jam, in Seattle, Washington. In 2010, Keiko, Shannon, and Courtney were honored to travel to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates with One World Taiko to perform as resident artists during November and December at the Global Village on the Main Cultural Stage. One World Taiko now resides in Seattle, and the members of Mirai Daiko would like to thank Gary and Nancy for teaching them the art of taiko.

Meg, Keiko, Shannon, and Courtney founded Mirai Daiko in 2002. Over the past eight years, Mirai Daiko has performed at a wide-range of special events and festivals including the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival, Denver’s Cherry Blossom Festival, Hearts for Heart’s Sake, the Boulder Asian Festival, Taiko Summit Colorado, the Festival of Japan in Laramie, WY, and many more. The group produced their first stage production, Mirai Daiko Live, in 2010 which premiered on the Curious Theater stage in Denver, CO. They are advocates for education and have been workshop teachers at Swallow Hill Music School where they taught a series of taiko classes from 2010-2011. In August of 2011, Mirai Daiko will be featured performers as part of the North American Taiko Conference's TAIKO JAM concert at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

Mirai Daiko combines powerful beats with exciting movements. As the name Mirai (which means ‘the future’ in Japanese) indicates, this young group strives to engage audiences with a new and unique taiko experience.