Nagata Shachu Biographies

Please Note: Nagata Shachu performs with as few as three to a maximum of six players depending on the size and scope of the performance and venue. The standard group size is five performers.

Kiyoshi Nagata (taiko,shinobue, and shakuhachi)

Kiyoshi Nagata, the ensemble's artistic director, is Canada's preeminent taiko soloist who has been performing in a career that spans twenty-six years. His principal studies were with Daihachi Oguchi (as artistic director and performer of the Toronto-based, Suwa Daiko from 1982 to 1992) and with Kodo (as an apprentice from 1993 to 1994). With the assistance of a Chalmers Performing Arts Training Grant in 1999, Kiyoshi studied classical percussion with Paul Houle at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

Since 1998 Kiyoshi has taught a credit course in taiko at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Music. In September 2003, he began teaching a public course at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. For eight years, he instructed two community groups, Isshin Daiko in Toronto and Do-Kon Daiko in Burlington, which he helped establish in 1995. Kiyoshi is also regularly invited by universities and taiko groups to conduct workshops and present lectures.

In 1994, Kiyoshi founded the cross-cultural percussion ensemble, Humdrum, whose debut Toronto performance was ranked fourth in Now Magazine's "Top Ten Concerts of 1995". He has composed and performed taiko music for dance, theatre, film and radio and continues to collaborate with artists from all genres of music including traditional Japanese instrumentalists.

In 2003, while living in Fukuoka, Japan, Scott was instructed in the making and performing of the shakuhachi by the late Nomiyama Higao of Kasuga-shi. Though Scott's training was cut short due to Mr. Nomiyama's lung cancer, he continues to strive for the warmth and strength of tone that were the legacy of Mr. Nomiyama's style.

Aki Takahashi (taiko, vocals, and shamisen)

Aki was born in a small fishing village on Shodoshima, a small island in the Inland Sea of Japan. As a young girl, she had weekly piano lessons and developed a secret passion to become a musician thanks to her grandmother who was always singing folksongs.

Aki began to study the three-stringed Tsugaru Shamisen and folk singing in Kyoto and was able to make the acquaintance of other musicians like her who were trying to keep this traditional music alive. Since moving to Canada in 2000, she has continued to share her music with audiences in a wide variety of venues ranging from street performing to local festivals such as the Canadian Tulip Festival and the Ottawa Folk Festival.

Aki is also the founder of the Japanese Folk Music Collective Ten Ten

Nick Shao (taiko)

Nick began studying drums and percussion at the age of 10 at the Humber College Community Music School in Etobicoke and continued on to attend the Etobicoke School of the Arts where he was awarded the prestigious Lionel C. Wooster Jazz Award. He has performed all across North America, the Netherlands, Austria and Hungary with a diverse number of jazz, rock, world music and orchestral ensembles including the Toronto All-Star Big Band and the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra.

Nick completed his Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Performance at the University of Toronto where he was first introduced to taiko and also studied West African drumming, Indonesian Gamelan and Chinese music ensemble. Nick teaches drum kit at the Classical Music Conservatory in Toronto.