Mugenkyo 30th Anniversary Concert at Ffwrnes in Llanelli on Tuesday 15th October 2024

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By Brian McNeil - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15935140

Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers: In Time – 30th Anniversary Tour

 Tue 15 Oct 2024            Llanelli, Ffwrnes             7:30pm

www.theatrausirgar.co.uk     0345 2263510

www. taiko.co.uk

facebook: @mugenkyo

instagram: @MugenkyoTaiko 

Join the celebration of Mugenkyo’s landmark 30th anniversary, with a very special show of big beats, visual treats & vital energy.

Taking the audience on a journey ‘in time’, a thrilling ride through their 30 years, the concert is a full theatrical experience, with dynamic choreography and heart-pounding rhythms contrasting with atmospheric soundscapes.

As Europe’s longest-established taiko group, Mugenkyo are widely recognised as the ground-breaking pioneers of this exciting art-form, thrilling audiences at thousands of performances worldwide, now returning with their first major UK tour in almost 5 years. In 2024 they return to the road with an electrifying and uplifting performance of skill, stamina and soul, just ‘in time’ for this special Birthday Bash!

In the intervening years, Mugenkyo have been busy on projects such as collaborating on the ambitious “World of Gods” with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, filming for the Hollywood film “Tin Soldier” in Greece with Jamie Foxx and Robert DeNiro, a 2-week run at the World Expo in Dubai, the BBC TV Tokyo Olympics, a 26-date run at the Adelaide Fringe, the “Fire & Light” site-specific project, creating online classes & virtual performance, along with rebuilding their purpose-built residential studio & workshop space for their ongoing in-house training programme and masterclasses for taiko groups.

As well as their extensive touring through their 30 year history, Mugenkyo have released 6 albums and 3 concert DVD’s, making them the most artistically prolific taiko group outside of Japan. In addition to their main touring work at theatres and concert halls, Mugenkyo also perform at large-scale events and festivals at home and abroad, and have appeared on numerous television programmes such as the Brit Awards, BBC Last Night of the Proms, and filming in India for Bollywood. Mugenkyo push the boundaries of the art-form with their genre-crossing collaborations: with violin, piano & voice for the BBC World Showcase, with fiddle, tabla & Indian dance for the Edinburgh Mela Festival, with Scottish bagpipes for BBC Scotland, and with electronic music at Glastonbury.

MUGENKYO TAIKO DRUMMERS – Press Reviews

“Lightning-fast synchronisation & complex rhythms on huge barrel-sized instruments. Hypnotic and primal, the show is an entrancing display of physicality, precision and discipline.”

The List

  “Mugenkyo showcases its musical presentation in totally modern style, making the esoteric thoroughly pop… sustaining its appeal right to the climax, winning thunderous applause.”

The Stage

 “If ever there was a musical incarnation of raw physical power, Taiko drumming has to be it. Mugenkyo have brought their energetic Taiko performance to Edinburgh, receiving whoops of joy from its audiences. Taiko drumming is as much a physical spectacle as an aural one; the drummers use calculated disciplined movements… Your whole body begins to reverberate as the soft patter of raindrops grows into a deep rumble. Just when you think it could not get any more powerful, it doubles in intensity.

This show is not one to be missed.

«««««  Edinburgh Evening News

 “Unashamedly drumming as theatre, but also drumming as an almost religious experience…. exhilarating to behold.”

««««  The Glasgow Herald

“This is not music for wimps. A tour de force of both music and stamina…

If the tour bus is parked in your neighbourhood my advice is go to the gig, and don’t take the cotton wool.”

Avant Magazine

“The members of Mugenkyo, Europe’s only professional Taiko drumming group, perform with what seems an unlikely combination of reckless abandon and metronome-like precision. Armed with wooden sticks, they whack their drums – which range from small, bowl-sized instruments to others the size of boulders – in a combination of synchronised movements reminiscent of tai chi. But there is nothing tai chi-like about the sound: a heady, relentless and rigid beat over which complex counter-rhythms are steadily added. From a soft pitter-pattering evocative of a slight rainfall to a thundering,eardrum-bursting shudder loud enough to wake the gods, these musicians display a remarkable control, with not a beat out of place anywhere.”

The Scotsman

  MUGENKYO TAIKO DRUMMERS: IN TIME

30th Anniversary Tour 

2024 AUTUMN TOUR DATES

Wed 2 Oct

Whitley Bay

Playhouse

www.playhousewhitleybay.co.uk

0191 251 5484

Thu 3 Oct

Stockport

The Plaza

www.stockportplaza.co.uk

0161 477 7779

Fri 4 Oct

Lancaster

Grand Theatre

www.lancastergrand.co.uk

01524 64695

Sat 5 Oct

Leeds

Carriageworks Theatre

www.carriageworkstheatre.co.uk

0113 376 0318

Sun 6 Oct

Hull

City Hall

www.hulltheatres.co.uk

01482 300 306

Tue 8 Oct

Bury

The Apex

www.theapex.co.uk

01284 758000

Wed 9 Oct

Loughborough

Town Hall

www.loughboroughtownhall.co.uk

01509 231914

Thu 10 Oct

Hereford

The Courtyard

www.courtyard.org.uk

01432 340555

Fri 11 Oct

London

Cadogan Hall

www.cadoganhall.com

020 7730 4500

Sat 12 Oct

Peterborough

Key Theatre

www.keytheatre-peterborough.com

01733 852 992

Sun 13 Oct

Newport

The Riverfront

www.newportlive.co.uk/en/venues/riverfront/

01633 656757

Tue 15 Oct

Llanelli

Ffwrnes

www.theatrausirgar.co.uk

0345 2263510

Wed 16 Oct

Cardigan

Theatr Mwldan

www.mwldan.co.uk

01239 621200

Thu 17 Oct

Aberystwyth

Arts Centre

www.aberystwythartscentre.co.uk

01970 62 32 32

Fri 18 Oct

Caernarfon

Galeri

www.galericaernarfon.com

01286 685 222

Sat 19 Oct

Wrexham

William Aston Hall

www.williamastonwrexham.com

01352 344101

Tue 22 Oct

Bristol

Redgrave Theatre

www.redgravetheatre.com

0117 315 7800

Wed 23 Oct

Winchester

Theatre Royal

www.theatreroyalwinchester.co.uk

01962 840440

Thu 24 Oct

Poole

Lighthouse

www.lighthousepoole.co.uk

01202 280000

Fri 25 Oct

Isle of Wight

Medina Theatre

www.medinatheatre.co.uk

01983 823884

Sat 26 Oct

Exeter

Northcott Theatre

www.exeternorthcott.co.uk

01392 72 63 63

Sun 27 Oct

Ilfracombe

Landmark Theatre

www.queenstheatre-barnstaple.com

01271 316523

Tues 29 Oct

Yeovil

Westlands

www.westlandsyeovil.co.uk

01935 422 884

Wed 30 Oct

Cheltenham

Town Hall

www.cheltenhamtownhall.org.uk

01242 528764

 

Sat 9 Nov

Glasgow

Old Fruitmarket

www.glasgowlife.org.uk/arts-music-and-culture/venues/old-fruitmarket

0141 353 8000

 

Further dates throughout 2024 & 2025

See www.taiko.co.uk for updates

 


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