SHIGERU WATANABE

Shigeru is currently a senior performing member, which involves him in advising the artistic progress of the members, leading rehearsals, coordinating logistics for performance and other events, and managing various projects for the organization.

Shigeru was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. He spent 7 1/2 years studying for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in various places including the University of Queensland, Australia, where he earned an M.A. of Japanese Conference Interpreting and Translation. While his original intention was to remain in Australia, he received a job offer in Boston in 1997, where he has been ever since.

Shigeru was drawn to taiko not because he was Japanese trying to do something Japanese, but it looked like an interesting thing to do and he loved the idea of performing on stage. He first saw Odaiko New England at First Night Boston 2000 and immediately signed up for a workshop. He became a member of Odaiko New England in June 2001.

In addition to taiko, the multi-talented Shigeru counts among his activities competition ballroom dancing, flamenco, salsa dancing, swimming, skiing, scuba diving and many other things. He will try anything as long as it is an opportunity to learn and meet many new people.

Shigeru currently works at a translation/localization company as a Localization Engineering Manager. He manages various projects to translate software, web, documents and other materials for 30+ languages, utilizing worldwide resources. He also works as Translator/Editor, Desktop Publishing Specialist and Web/Help engineer as a freelancer (basically he does everything:) He brings knowledge and expertise from his career to Odaiko New England, where he manages projects necessary for the group to grow, including maintaining the website and creating publications.

As a native Japanese, Shigeru brings many aspects of Japanese culture to Odaiko New England's artistic vision. He also introduces traditional Japanese taiko songs, such as Miyake/Kiyari to ONE. Whenever he visits his home country, he meets with traditional taiko performing and dancing groups and seeks opportunities to learn from them.