The Texas A&M University College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts will host the World Shakuhachi Festival next Thursday through Sunday.
Martin Regan, a professor in the Music Performance program, organized the festival, which will be held in Texas for the first time. The quadrennial event debuted in Japan in 1994, and it was most recently held in London in 2018.
Regan said he envisions shakuhachi professionals and aficionados from around the world gathering to celebrate the “transcendental instrument.”
“The 2025 World Shakuhachi Festival is an event that will leave a footprint in the cultural consciousness of Texas A&M, Bryan-College Station, Texas and beyond for years to come,” he said. “To grow awareness of this instrument, its repertoire and the power of cross-cultural collaboration.”
The four-day festival centers around the shakuhachi, an end-blown bamboo flute that was imported to Japan from China in the eighth century, Regan said, and remains an important part of Japanese culture and music today. It is utilized in jazz, contemporary, rock and pop music, along with video games, he said.
More than 210 visiting guest artists and participants from around the world — including Japan, China, Taiwan, Finland, Australia and England — have registered for the event, which will feature 10 concerts, more than 75 workshops and classes, three open-mic sessions, two competitions and a research symposium.
To purchase tickets for concerts at Rudder Theatre, visit the MSC Box Office website. The concerts in the Black Box Theater are free.
