Although he always had a love for music ever since he began playing the violin at age 7, he did not discover taiko until 1998, when he first lived in Japan. After seven years of admiring taiko drumming from afar, he finally gave it a try in 2005, forming the group, Raion Taiko with his wife and several high school students from his Japanese classes. From 2007 to 2009 Brian and Mayumi moved to Japan in order to study taiko more intensely at the Asano Taiko Foundation for Taiko Culture and Research in Ishikawa. While in Japan, they were both instructed by members of the world famous taiko group, Hono-O-Daiko.
Brian Sole Grew up in Walled Lake and studied German and Education at Wheaton College (IL), graduating with a BA in 1997. He received a Masters Degree in 2004 for German Studies from Middlebury College (VT). He has been an English, Japanese and German teacher in Michigan and Japan and currently teaches German at Canton High School for Plymouth-Canton Community Schools.
Mayumi began studying taiko in Japan in 1998. When she moved to Michigan in 2000, she searched and searched for a taiko group, but could not find one. Unable to find a group, in 2005, she decided to make her own. After securing a few small drums, she and Brian formed Raion Taiko. With her skills on the yoko-bue flute and the three-stringed shamisen, Mayumi brings an elegant and melodic touch to Raion Taiko.
Mayumi Maezawa Sole grew up in Kanazawa, Japan. At 16, she spent a year as an exchange student in Australia and eventually graduated from high school in Salem, Oregon. Mayumi has a degree in Piano Performance from Pacific University (OR) and studied Music Therapy at Michigan State University. In addition to her taiko studies at the Asano Foundation for Taiko Culture and Research, she also was a tour assistant with Wadaiko Yamato, The Drummers of Japan during their 1999 “Spirits” tour of Europe and Israel.