WVU Parkersburg to present Yamato: The Drummers of Japan

Nov. 16, 2009
NOTE: Yamato concert is sold out. No tickets will be available at the door.

Nov. 10, 2009
WVU Parkersburg to present Yamato: The Drummers of Japan in concert Nov. 19, 2009.

CONTACT: Dr. H.G. Young III, professor of music; coordinator of Distinguished Performance Series, 304-424-8248.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The highly-charged percussion rhythm of Yamato: The Drummers of Japan will reverberate in the College Activities Center Thursday, Nov. 19, at West Virginia University at Parkersburg.

The show is at 7 p.m. and part of the college’s Distinguished Performance Series.

The 10-member Japanese troupe travels with several dozen large and small drums, including an o-daiko made from a large 400-year-old tree, to produce an inspiring, unforgettable experience. The ensemble’s drumming is intensely physical, with beats running the gamut from the tapping of rain to explosions of rhythmic exhilaration.

Every performance is a mesmerizing display of the instruments' versatility and appeal. Yamato’s family-friendly performances center around the idea that the drumbeat, like the heartbeat, is the very pulse of life.

Adult tickets are $10 and student tickets are $5. WVU Parkersburg students may purchase special advance tickets for themselves and one guest for $2 each in the college Business Office. All tickets at the door will be regular price.

Yamato has played to more than a million people, giving over 1,000 performances in tours of Asia, South America and Europe. Yamato is making its fifth cross-country tour of the U.S. this fall.

The drumming troupe was founded by Masa Ogawa in 1993 in Nara, “the land of Yamato,” which is said to be the birthplace of Japanese culture. Yamato is also a special world for the Japanese, evoking a peaceful and artistically important period of their history.

Of Yamato, the UK's Telegraph newspaper described Yamato's performance as evoking, "Phenomenal skill and ferocity somewhere between the seriousness of samurai and the crazed exhibitionism of heavy-metal rock drummers."

This program is being presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Division of Culture and History and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts, and the WV Higher Education Policy Commission and Council for Community and Technical College Education.