Interview: Manman (Yeeman Mui) talks teaching kids, Orff, and taiko

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I first met Manman (Yeeman Mui) during Kyosuke Suzuki sensei's Summer Taiko Intensive in 2011. She is now teaching and performing at the Taiko Center of the Pacific in Honolulu, where we performed together during my recent Hawaii trip. A certified Orff instructor, Manman is becoming known as a taiko teacher specializing in young children. In addition to offering classes at Asano Taiko US in Torrance, she is an active performer involved in multiple projects such as Spall Fragments, the upcoming production by Joe Small. Manman kindly spent time with me to talk about her background, Orff training, working with kids, incorporating dance and body percussion, and her current projects. I would encourage everyone to check out the links below for examples of what we talked about in the interview.

Yeeman Mui (aka Manman) Originally from Hong Kong, Manman graduated from the University of Hong Kong in 2010 with an MPhil in Musicology. She is a dedicated taiko practitioner, performer and teacher. Since becoming a certified Orff instructor, her vision is to continually find new ways to celebrate the essence of teaching of taiko through the mind, body and spirit. In 2012 and 2013, she was awarded a fellowship to study with Kenny Endo at the Taiko Center of the Pacific (TCP). Since then she has been working as a performing member and teacher at TCP. Outside of TCP and Hong Kong, She has also taught at the Los Angeles Taiko Institute (LATI), curated the Youth Program at the North American Taiko Conference in Las Vegas 2015, and conducted a series of music teacher workshops in Macau 2015.