Youth Group

TCP YG welcomes the 2026 New Year’s Sunrise at the First Day Hike at Ka’iwi Scenic State Shoreline Park.
TCP has been doing this every year since New Year’s Day 2013. It’s a wonderful way to start the new year.
YG also performed several numbers in Kenny Endo sensei’s 50th Anniversary Celebration Concerts at UH Kennedy Theatre in August 2025.

The Taiko Center of the Pacific Youth Group (YG) is a taiko performing group consisting of children ages 6-17. Established by Kenny and Chizuko Endo in 1994, the YG made their debut performance at the opening of the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii’s stage II, and has since been actively performing for island festivals and special events.

Under the leadership of many fine artists, the group has developed their technique and creativity to become one of the top youth taiko ensembles in the United States. Among their many performances, they have appeared at the Neal Blaisdell Center Concert Hall as part of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra’s educational series performances, Kobe Earthquake Relief Fund Benefit, Manoa Valley Christmas Parade, Annual Pacific Rim Children’s Chorus Festival, Honolulu Festival, and the Aloha Week Festival. In 2002, TCP Youth Group traveled to Fort Wayne Indiana to be the lead performers of the First Annual International Youth Arts Festival, give school educational demonstrations, and performed at the F.A.M.E (Foundation for Art and Music in Elementary Education) Festival. The Youth Group made a big splash at the 2003 North American Taiko Conference’s “Taiko Ten” concert in Sacramento, California. In 2004 they opened for the internationally acclaimed taiko group TAO. In 2009, the YG toured the Noto peninsula Japan in a performance and study tour. In 2013, the YG was the featured guest in Zenshin Daiko’s 5th Annual Taiko Festival on Maui. In 2015, they were the beneficiaries of a project entitled “Developing the Next Generation of Taiko Artists” sponsored by the Honolulu Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts. They participated in workshops led by such taiko luminaries as Shoji Kameda (On Ensemble), Masato Baba (TaikoProject, On Ensemble), Chris Shigeo Holland (Amanojaku), and Kenny Endo. They premiered two new compositions (“San-Go-Nana” by Kenny Endo, and “Ocean Horizons” by Masato Baba) at TEN TEN, Kenny Endo’s 40th Anniversary Celebration Concert at the Hawaii Theatre.