Kenny Endo is one of the leading personas in contemporary percussion and rhythm.
A performer, composer, and teacher of taiko with numerous awards and accolades, Kenny Endo is a consummate artist, blending Japanese taiko with rhythms influenced from around the world into original melodies and improvisation.
His thirty-five year career began as he embarked on a decade-long odyssey in his ancestral Japan, studies and performed with the masters of both traditional and ensemble drumming, and became the first non-Japanese national to receive a natori (master’s stage name) in classical drumming.
Kenny is the vanguard of the taiko genre and continues to pave new paths in Japanese style drumming.
Kenny’s sources of inspiration continue to be his wonderful teachers: Seiichi Tanaka, Daihachi Oguchi, Saburo Mochizuki, Bokusei Mochizuki, Kenjiro Maru, Rev. Masao Kodani, and Tadao Okuyama whose teaching constantly guide him.
Kenny’s taiko are provided courtesy of Miyamoto Unosuke Company in Tokyo.
Source: Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, April 3, 2010, Kenny Endo & Friends in Concert
