Download a PDF version of the bazaar poster (1MB)
(Right-click and choose Save Target As...)
Nationally renowned and critically acclaimed Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble will headline the annual Satsuki Arts Festival and Bazaar on the weekend of May 17-18 in Berkeley.
The festival and bazaar, which is the major fund-raiser for the Berkeley Buddhist Temple, will be held from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday, May 17, and from 12 noon to 7 p.m. on Sunday, May 18. The free entertainment will be from 12 noon to 5 p.m. on May 18.
The bazaar will also feature a variety of Japanese and Hawaiian food, including teriyaki chicken and barbecued steak dinners, sushi, curry rice, udon noodles, manju and mochi sweets, spam musubi, loco moco and American fare such as hamburgers. The event will also include a silent auction, arts and crafts, games for children, homemade baked goods, fresh flowers and garden plants for sale, as well as Buddhist literature.
Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble (SYTE), which was founded in 1999, goes beyond the sounds of the taiko drum to use music, theater and dance as a medium to express the human condition as it relates to its environment, community and its future, according to the ensemble's Web site.
The ensemble has toured throughout California and nationally and has performed at many major music and performing arts venues including Popejoy Hall in Alburquerque, N.M., Kingsbury Hall in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts. Since 2003, the ensemble has performed to packed audiences in Oregon, Washington state, Idaho, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico.
The festival's entertainment will also feature the Paul Yonemura Jazz Ensemble. Yonemura has had a long career in music performance and in music education. As a drummer, he's played with John Handy, Mary Fettig, Chris Vadala, Kim Richmond, New Oakland Jazz Orchestra, Bay Area Emmy Awards Orchestra, Oakland Symphony Pops Orchestra, J-Town Jazz Ensemble, and many others. As a music educator, he has taught at every level, including elementary school band, middle and high school band, orchestra and jazz band and jazz band at the collegiate level. He currently teaches music at Herbert Hoover Middle School in San Francisco and has taught at El Cerrito High School and Portola Middle School in El Cerrito.
His ensemble will consist of Bob Athayde on piano, who is a music educator at Stanley Middle School in Lafayette; Bob Kenmotsu on tenor saxophone; Dave Eshelman, trombonist, who is a jazz studies teacher at Cal State East Bay; and John Wiitala on bass.
In addition, the Polynesian cultural dance group Hui Hula o na Pu'u i ka Noe ("Hula group of the hills in the mist"), which was established by Kalena Gregory, will perform. The group's repertoire is concentrated mainly around Hawaiian hula, but the group also performs dances from Tahitian, Maori, Samoan and other Pacific islands. Other performers include rock group Oldawan, and singers Dii Lewis and Lorin Kagehiro. Yonemura, Lewis and Kagehiro are members of the Berkeley Buddhist Temple. Lewis and Kagehiro will also serve as the co-masters of ceremonies.
A portion of the proceeds will go to benefit Asian Neighborhood Design and East Bay Asian Youth Center. The San Francisco-based Asian Neighborhood Design, which was established more than 30 years ago, has expanded beyond its original focus on designto include architecture, community planning, employment training, and family and youth resources.
The East Bay Youth Center, founded in 1976, is a private, nonprofit, community building organization in the San Antonio neighborhood of Oakland. The center has a membership of more than 700 families involved in one of five after-school learning centers, and also has a membership of more than 100 families who take part in R.I.S.E., the after-school learning center at Berkeley High School.
For more information about the Satsuki Arts Festival and Bazaar, contact the Berkeley Buddhist Temple at 510-841-1356.