MEMBERS
SHANE TYSK
Shane comes from a family of drummers, including his mother and two brothers, and has been playing percussion for almost 25 years. He joined his high school marching band and drum line and from there branched out to a wide variety of percussion instruments, including drum set and later, taiko. He joined Odaiko New England in 2007 and studied with Mark H Rooney, later becoming a performing member of ONE until 2012, when he joined ShinDaiko as a founding member. He also was a member of the 2008 taiko residency program hosted by the Japanese taiko group Shidara, based in Aichi prefecture, Japan.
Shane is avidly interested in both traditional and new methods of taiko drum building and finds it important to document the drum-building process to share this knowledge with the greater taiko community. He also makes a wide variety of bachi and drum stands.
By day, Shane works as a physicist and in the evenings can be found writing out new drills for ShinDaiko’s practice sessions, to the dismay of all the members.
GER TYSK
artistic director & webmaster/graphic designer
Ger began her musical studies in classical piano at the age of five and classical western flute at the age of eight. She studied and performed on both instruments under various instructors in Chicago, Denver, and Houston. She also studied conducting and drum major technique under drum and bugle corps leader George N. Parks.
She joined Odaiko New England as a student under Mark H Rooney and later Juni Kobayashi, and became an apprentice at ONE in 2011. In 2012, she became a founding member of ShinDaiko. In 2014, she participated in Wadaiko Tokara’s taiko intensive course hosted by odaiko champion Art Lee in Nagano Prefecture, Japan.
Ger is influenced by a wide variety of musical genres, including classical, opera, big band jazz, video game music, and Asian pop. In her non-taiko life, she works as a professional mariner, chef, and artist.
NORA RICHARDS
Having played guitar since she was 14, Nora went on to pursue formal music studies at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, and Berklee College of Music in Boston. It wasn’t until 2007 that she was introduced to taiko and began taking classes at Odaiko New England under Mark H Rooney. She played with Odaiko New England as a performing member until 2010 and became a founding member of ShinDaiko in 2012.
Besides taiko and guitar, Nora also plays bass guitar, drum kit, piano, and shakuhachi. Nora’s musical influences include jazz, progressive rock and heavy metal. In her downtime, she runs, hikes, and rock climbs.
KARIN DARAKANANDA
Hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area, Karin first started playing taiko as an undergraduate student at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. As a member of Wellesley Aiko, she studied under Isaku Kageyama, formerly of Amanojaku, and Mark H Rooney of Odaiko New England. She was one of the group’s co-presidents during her senior year. Karin joined ShinDaiko in fall 2014.
Outside of taiko, Karin works in the medical field. She enjoys listening to country music and Eminem, sleeping, taking long aimless walks, stair climbing, and eating lots of hamburgers.
TORI WILLBANKS-ROOS
SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR
Tori Willbanks-Roos is a Chinese adoptee hailing from the Boston area. She played taiko in college for 3 years with Oberlin College Taiko and also interned with The Genki Spark, an all Asian women’s taiko group in Boston, from 2015-2017. She joined ShinDaiko in 2017.
Taiko came into Tori’s life at a particularly rough time, and gave her the empowerment to find her voice as an adoptee, Asian-American woman, and survivor. She has attended multiple taiko conferences, including the East Coast Taiko Conference and the European Taiko Conference, and deeply enjoys finding community with fellow taiko players.
Tori has played the classical violin for 16 years, though now she just fiddles around for fun. She is also a member of Gund Kwok, an all Asian women’s traditional Chinese Lion Dance troupe, as another way of exploring her cultural identity. She is also really into social justice, cheese, stuffed animals, cheese, arts and crafts, and cheese.
JOY JARME
Born in the Philippines and raised in Southern California, Joy became fascinated with taiko after watching different groups perform during Bon festival at a local Buddhist church. She tried classes with four taiko groups before finding a home at the Los Angeles Taiko Institute (LATI), where she studied odaiko and naname styles under Yuta Kato and Isaku Kageyama.
Her musical background includes childhood piano, high school choir, college voice, and the odd bass guitar lesson. When she’s not de-stressing at the drums, Joy enjoys watching the rain from her oversized recliner, belting out everything from Broadway to 80’s rock hits in her truck, and creating Excel spreadsheets. Her weaknesses include french fries, dark chocolate, artisanal ice cream, and really good boba tea.
apprentices
Susanna Elledge
Susanna grew up in the Boston area and was introduced to taiko during her senior year of high school during a workshop with the Genki Spark. She fell in love with taiko and joined the Genki Spark for one year as a “Genki Teen”. Upon graduating high school, she attended UC Berkeley and joined the collegiate group Cal Raijin Taiko where she had four years of fun growing as a taiko player and served as a co-director during her senior year. She went on to pursue her PhD at UCSF and joined local San Francisco taiko group Jiten Daiko. She moved back to Boston and started as an apprentice in ShinDaiko in the fall of 2022. She is also trained in western flute and enjoys playing fue with taiko!
Outside of taiko, Susanna works as a postdoc researcher at MIT studying new ways to detect and treat cancer. She loves eating hot pot (even in the dead of summer) and will never say no if you suggest it for a meal. She also enjoys black and white photography and developing/printing her own photos.
Gabi ogata
HEEJUNG CHUNG
FORMER MEMBERS
TANYA DOWNER
SARA LI
SHUWEN ZHANG
RIE HAYASHI
Rie was born and raised in Okinawa, Japan. She began her taiko journey in 2008 in Houston, Texas with Kaminari Taiko and Eisa (Okinawan drumming and dance) with Ryukyukoku Matsuridaiko. She also plays sanshin, the traditional Okinawan 3-stringed lute. Rie is currently the Branch Leader of the Massachusetts branch of Ryukyukoku Matsuri Daiko (RMD-MA), an Eisa (Okinawan dance) group.