Sonoma County Taiko Classes & Workshops

Sonoma County Taiko Classes & Workshops offers taiko classes and workshops that include performing, performances, teambuilding workshops, cultural presentations, workshops, demonstrations, Taiko Basics workshops, a Taiko & Japanese Culture Camp, and a Santa Rosa Rec and Park workshop series. The program offers classes and workshops for children and adults interested in just trying taiko or delving deeper into Japanese culture and performing.

• Ages: 5–18 years old

Sonoma County Taiko’s mission is to build a community of acceptance, harmony, and respect through its love of taiko. The organization has offered taiko in Sonoma County since the mid-1990s, including producing its first Taiko Camp and festival in 1997, celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2005 with a full concert featuring all members as the sole performers, and producing “Tomodachi,” its fifteenth anniversary concert, in 2010. Sonoma County Taiko was awarded a 2025 Arts Impact Grant for Organizations by Creative Sonoma and operates on an annual budget of around $40,000.

Arn is a founding member who began taiko training with a workshop by Tiffany Tamaribuchi and Sacramento Taiko Dan in 1995, later studying at San Francisco Taiko Dojo with Grand Master Seiichi Tanaka and participating in the KASA-mix group tour to Japan and Sado Island to experience the apprentice lifestyle at KODO. Miwa has been playing taiko since 1997, is learning from Grand Master Seiichi Tanaka as a member of San Francisco Taiko Dojo, and has performed in San Francisco and the Bay Area, Lowell (Massachusetts), Butte (Montana), and Qatar in the Middle East. Meg has been playing taiko since 2006 and has taught little kids class, youth class, beginning adult classes, Taiko Basics workshops, and the Santa Rosa Rec and Park workshop series, and has organized and taught Sonoma County Taiko’s “Taiko & Japanese Culture Camp” program while also handling booking duties. Alexa began playing taiko in 2003 in New Mexico, has traveled to Japan twice to learn from professional taiko artist Art Lee, has attended several workshops with other masters and professionals around the United States, has played with Sonoma County Taiko since 2010, taught taiko in New Mexico from 2005 to 2010, and began teaching with Sonoma County Taiko in 2013.

From 2022 to 2024, board members are listed as Alexa Riner, Arnold Shimizu, Ann Frowick, and Deanne DiPietro. Board meetings are held monthly, are open, and are supplemented by two retreats a year and two leadership meetings for members who would like to be more involved in group decisions without committing to being board members, and an annual meeting of the membership happens every January. With support from Enmanji Buddhist Temple and the Japanese American Citizens League Sonoma County Chapter, the group that came together to learn taiko was able to grow, using the community hall at Enmanji as a practice space and startup funds from the JACL to build their first several wine barrel taiko.

Sonoma County Taiko provides performances, teambuilding workshops, and cultural presentations for community events, school assemblies, and private parties, and conducts cultural outreach to local schools and community events with workshops, demonstrations, and performances. Donations help them provide this cultural outreach to local schools and community events. Testimonials describe learning taiko with Sonoma County Taiko as “so much fun” and say that joining the group brought a sense of community, and feedback from organizations such as the Petaluma Library, a solar company, and Brooks Elementary notes powerful taiko performances and school assemblies that “set the tone for the whole day.”

Last updated March 28, 2026.