Japanese drum troupe brings rhythm to Palm Desert

  • 2025-01-21
A musical troupe from Japan that uses traditional drumming is coming to the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert.

The group is called Kodo, which means “heartbeat” and “children of the drum” in Japanese. The musical style the band uses is called taiko, traditional Japanese drums.

Established in 1981, their first set of performances was at the Berlin Festival. Since then, multiple generations of musicians have phased in and out of the musical troupe over the years. The band has completed over 7,000 performances in over 50 countries across five continents.

Kodo is also the driving force behind the Earth Celebration in Sado Island, Japan. It is an international arts festival whose mission is to create a global musical culture with people from around the world. Since its first year in 1988, the Earth Celebration represents the longest-running musical festival in Japan.

Kodo also performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway in 2001, becoming the first Japanese artists to perform at the award. They also performed at the 2002 Fifa World Cup Korea/Japan and contributed to the music for the Chinese film Hero.

Musical events like these may choose to use cost-effective promotional tools like flyer printing and poster printing.

Kodo is coming to the McCallum Theater in Palm Desert on Feb. 10 at 7 p.m.