DIANA WU

About Diana

Diana Wu is the founder and director of Naruwan Taiko and based in San Diego, California. Before founding Naruwan in 2008, her taiko journey began in 2006 with UC Berkeley’s Raijin Taiko (then Cal Taiko). In 2017, Diana served as the Chair of the Host City for the North American Taiko Conference in San Diego. She also spent some time on Sado Island as a selected participant of Roots of Kodo (a deep immersion apprenticeship-like program for people outside of Japan, spearheaded by Eri Uchida). In 2019, Diana joined the kaDON team, Miyamoto Unosuke Shoten’s American branch and in 2020, she was a featured artist at HERbeat, the first taiko concert production starring primarily women taiko artists from North America and Japan. In 2024, Diana served as a judge panelist for the North American Taiko Taikai Competition. As a taiko instructor, Diana has taught students since 2008 through Naruwan Taiko’s community classes and workshops for schools, private companies, and conferences such as the North American Taiko Conference and the Intercollegiate Taiko Invitational. Diana’s taiko performance style heavily focuses on evoking a large stage presence through facial expression, movement, voice, and using her whole body to generate a full sound. Her first course on kaDON is Release, Diana’s very first composition and Naruwan Taiko’s signature piece, which embodies all of these elements.