Biography

Ikuyo Conant is a composer and choreographer based in Santa Cruz, CA. She is the Artistic Director of Watsonville Taiko, and has written and arranged the group’s music and developed the choreography since l992. In 1996, she created Shinsei Daiko, a youth drumming and performing arts group, and in 1999 she established Shinsho Mugen Daiko of Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay. She is the resident teacher for Sandoshin Taiko in Morgan Hill, and has taught Taiko drumming at CSUMB.


Ikuyo served on the steering committee and task force of the Santa Cruz Cultural Action Plan organized by the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County and the Community Foundation. While a member of SPECTRA, the Cultural Council’s Arts in Education Program, she created a program for children integrating storytelling with drumming and music. She continues to work with children through school programs and cultural programs at elementary schools in Santa Cruz County, Monterey Bay and San Jose.


In 2000, she received the Calabash Award, and the following year she received the Gail Rich Award from the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County. Ikuyo works closely with the Japanese American Citizen’s League of Watsonville, and is involved in Japanese cultural fairs and festivals in counties of Santa Cruz and Monterey.