TAIKO Extravaganza 2026 Prescott AZ | Ken Koshio Featured by Across The Street Prescott | Elk Theatre, Fri. Oct. 16 at 7PM | Workshop, Sat. Oct. 17 at 11AM
Explore the roots of Japanese and native American drums in an Elks show and workshop
By GILLIAN ‘GUS’ ANDREWS, The Daily Courier, October 5, 2026
Ken Koshio “wanted to be a Japanese Bob Dylan.” Growing up in Nagoya, he listened to American folk music, country, blues, and rock. Japanese traditional music didn’t interest him, though he played some in school.
It was when he moved to Los Angeles area in 1996, playing with musicians including bassist Phil Chen, that Koshio realized there was something missing that would make the music his. That was when he turned to taiko, the large, thunderous traditional Japanese drums made internationally famous by the Kodō ensemble.
Koshio brings his unique blend of “Taiko and Roll” to the Elks Theatre in the “Prayer For Peace Taiko Extravaganza” on Friday, Oct. 16, as well as a beginner taiko drumming class the next day at the Elks Performing Arts Center.
The show also brings in drummers and dancers from native communities the Southwest, seeking the roots of drumming which people have in common across the world: as ceremony and as a way of communicating, as well as a form of entertainment.
World champion hoop dancer Derrick Suwaima Davis is featured in the performance. Davis has partnered with Koshio for a number of years.
“From the very beginning, we just attracted each other because somehow we saw the roots” of each of their musical styles, Koshio said. He mused that the connection may have come tens of thousands of years ago, when the ancestors of tribes in the Southwest came to North America over the land bridge between what is now Russia and Alaska.
“A lot of Native guys here, especially Hopi guys… (their philosophy is) receiving the energy, or communicating with nature, that’s so similar with the Japanese,” Koshio said. Koshio’s son, Miro, joins the performers with traditional Japanese flute, pairing their unique sound with native flutes.
When the energy of rock, taiko, and native drumming meet, “it makes a different kind of vibe and groove,” Koshio said. “Some are serious, but also some are more enjoyable and danceable.” While most Americans who know taiko think of it as high-energy, this concert swells through different moods. “It’s not punk rock,” Koshio said. “There’ll be those high-energy moments, but also really quiet ones.”
The theme of this concert is “Prayer for Peace,” and one of the songs Koshio’s group will play is “Nicho Daiko,” a song from Hiroshima that is over 1,000 years old.
“This is basically a song we’re going to perform for prayer,” Koshio said. One of his teachers was a small child in Hiroshima when the U.S. Air Force dropped an atomic bomb on the city in 1945, he said. While he is alive to this day, he lost many family members that day.
“I just wanted to remember the very first victims (of atomic warfare were) Americans,” Koshio said, pointing out the impact of radiation from atomic testing on communities around White Sands, New Mexico, as well as on native communities in the Southwest where uranium has been mined. “It’s a really big impact for all human beings,” he said.
“We need to remember, we’re so fragile,” Koshio said. “For me, music and drumming is a great tool to communicate and hopefully… we can maybe pass to next generations a better way to understand what is important for us, instead of destroying each other.”
Ken and Miro Koshio lead a Phoenix-based community drumming group, Koshio Gumi, where Miro said he sees people finding community, off of the internet, in ways that have been disrupted since COVID. The workshop they are leading on the 17th brings a taste of that community effort to the Quad Cities.
“I think music is one of the easiest ways to connect,” said Miro. “And specifically drumming just because if you hit it, it’ll make sound,” so the barrier to entry is lower than, say, playing the piano. “It’s a little bit easier to kind of dip into it.”
“To understand each other,” his father said, “music is a very great tool.”
Prayer for Peace: Taiko Extravaganza comes to the Elks Theatre Friday, Oct. 16 at 7:00 p.m. A drum workshop for all experience levels follows the next day, Saturday, Oct. 17, at 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. Visit prescottelkstheatre.org for tickets, or call 928-777-1370.