ten ten members
Aki Takahashi is a shamisen player, folk singer and taiko drummer. She studied traditional folk music in Kyoto, and has given shamisen and vocal performances at numerous venues and events
throughout Canada, the US, Japan and Europe. 2023 marked Aki’s 20-year anniversary performing in Canada in which she celebrated by performing in twenty cities, states and countries including Vancouver, Sudbury, Winnipeg, Charlottetown, Hamilton, Ottawa, Toronto,
Minnesota, Arizona, Hawaii, Sweden and Hungary.
In addition to leading ten ten and having an active solo career, Aki has been a member of the professional Toronto-based taiko group Nagata Shachu since 2003 and has served as its Associate Artistic Director for over ten years. With this ensemble, she has toured throughout North America and Italy and has performed at major concerts in Mexico and Lebanon.
Heidi Chan is based in Toronto and works in music performance, composition, and sound design for theatre and dance. She is a former member of Nagata Shachu, and a current member of Ten Ten Japanese music ensemble and cross-cultural music collective Massyr Ensemble. Heidi performs primarily on bamboo flutes, percussion, and electronics, and her musical interests range from folk music and cross-disciplinary collaborations to electronic and experimental music. Heidi currently teaches East Asian music at Toronto Metropolitan University, and is a graduate researcher at TMU’s Responsive Ecologies Lab (RE/Lab).
Kiyoshi Nagata has been performing taiko in a career that spans over four decades and it the founder and artistic director of Nagata Shachu, Canada’s preeminent professional taiko group. Formed in 1998, Kiyoshi has led the ensemble in tours across North America and Italy in addition to major engagements in Lebanon and Mexico. As a performer, he has collaborated with both local and international artists as part of the group’s annual three-concert season, and his original compositions have been featured on the ensemble’s numerous CDs and DVDs.
Kiyoshi has taught taiko at the U of T Faculty of Music since 1998. He also taught a public taiko course at the Royal Conservatory of Music from 2003 to 2011, and helped to found two community taiko groups in Burlington and Toronto. He is regularly invited by universities and taiko groups to present workshops and lectures. As a solo artist, 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.
ten ten collective
Past collaborators
Makoto Tani – koto
Hiroshi Miyamoto – Kathak dance
Yoshi Yamano – sitar
Junko Kobayashi – Japanese dance
Meiko Ando – butoh dance
Fumi Sakamoto – bass guitar
Jay Takagi – drum set
Koji Hori – jazz guitar
Kayo Yasuhara – Japanese folk dance
Nick Shao – drum set