Schaumburg's Yoshinojo Fujima Featured in Concerts Dec. 16 & 17

Schaumburg resident and Chicago Grandmaster Yoshinojo Fujima is featured in two concerts presented Asian Improv aRts Midwest (AIRMW) this weekend: "Reduction 9" (8 p.m., Dec. 16) and "Taiko Legacy 20th Anniversary" (2 p.m. Dec. 17). Both performances will take place at the Edlis Neeson Theatre at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, 220 E. Chicago Ave.

Yoshinojo Fujima (aka Rika Lin) is an interdisciplinary artist, dancemaker, and Grandmaster in Fujima-style Japanese classical dance and is part of the postwar Japanese American diaspora. Her works embody her identity and tradition through performance as well as her teaching practice in Japanese classical dance.

Yoshinojo Fujima's process and art springs forth from a complete immersion in traditional practice. She has performed her original works and as part of many collaborations at Links Hall, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Pritzker Pavilion, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago where she premiered her full-length work "Asobi: Playing within Time" (2018). In 2021 she received the CDF Digital Dance Grant and the CDF Production Residency for her ongoing virtual reality project “Kurokami E{m}Urge, #ChooseYourReality.” Additional honors and awards include residencies at Ragdale Foundation (2019) and High Concept Labs (2018) and 3Arts Award (2023, Dance).

The Dec. 17"Taiko Legacy 20th Anniversary" concert celebrates two decades of AIRMW's most anticipated event of the year, “Taiko Legacy.” This annual concert is one of the largest taiko presentations in the Midwest and is built on the efforts of community activism in Asian American and Japanese American performing arts across the country. Joining Yoshinojo Fujima and the performers of Tsukasa Taiko (a program of AIRMW) will be guest artists including long-standing partner Grandmaster Chizuru Kineya plus Japan and New York-based koto and shamisen performer Yoko “Reikano” Kimura and Japanese classical dancer Kanshichinao Fujima from Japan.

It is preceded by the Dec. 16 “Reduction 9” concert, also featuring Yoshinojo Fujima and Tsukasa Taiko. Additional artists include Grandmaster Chizuru Kineya from Tokyo, Melody Takata and members of GenRyu Arts from San Francisco and creative music legends percussionists Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang and jazz flutist/composer Nicole Mitchell, plus New York-based koto player Yoko "Reikano" Kimura and classical dancer Kanshichinao Fujima from Japan.

Tickets for both concerts are $25 (plus fees). For more information visit AIRMW.org.