Marly Coe

Marly grew up on an apple orchard in southern New Hampshire, and studied Japanese throughout high school. After moving to southern California for college in 2014, Marly quickly joined the Claremont Colleges Shogo Taiko. There they played for 4 years, serving as the group's creative director their senior year (even going to 3 hour taiko practices on Saturday afternoons right after their morning rugby games!).

After graduating, Marly continued playing taiko with Makoto Taiko in Pasadena, where they studied with Koji Nakamura, Hunter Loyd, Shoji Kameda, and Kaoli Asano. They became a community performing group member just a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic, but continued taking virtual classes throughout their move back to the east coast in 2020. Marly became a member of ONE in 2021 and has continued learning and growing as a taiko player ever since, taking workshops with Kenny Endo, Yuta Kato, Joe Small, Michelle Fujii and Toru Watanabe.

Marly began taiko as a way to stay connected to the Japanese American community in the U.S., and to continue practicing the Japanese language outside the classroom. As a biomedical engineering PhD student, Marly also appreciates that taiko provides a fun, creative outlet to get them out of their head and into their body every week!