The Festival will revolve around teachers and performers from Japan, the USA and Australia. The key artists are:
Kaoru Kakizakai
Mr. Kakizakai began shakuhachi studies at age 21, while a student of Aoyama University, with Katsuya Yokoyama. In 1987, he graduated from the NHK Traditional Music Conservatory and in 1997, won the Grand Award for the All Japan Hôgaku Competition. In 2000, he performed Toru Takemitsu’s November Steps, a concerto featuring shakuhachi and biwa with the NHK Symphony Orchestra. Kakizakai has travelled extensively abroad and has made CDs and videos with Katsuya Yokoyama and other shakuhachi masters. He has lectured at the Tokyo College of Music since 2000.
Kazushi Matama
Mr. Matama began shakuhachi studies in 1964. He graduated from the NHK Traditional Music Conservatory in 1972. Since then, he has toured Europe, Australia, North and South America and the Middle East, and has participated in the recording of a number of CDs. He is a director of the Ranposha-Chikushin Kai and president of the Yokohama Chikushin Kai (shakuhachi organizations in Japan).
Teruo Furuya
Mr. Furuya began playing the shakuhachi in 1967. He graduated from the NHK Traditional Music Conservatory and from the Tokyo Gakugei University in 1971. He has won numerous awards, recorded solo and joint CDs and has toured the world as one of the leading proponents of the shakuhachi. He is a director of the Ranposha-Chikushin Kai and lectures at the NHK Culture Centre and the Tokyo Gakugei University. He is president of the Tokyo Chikushin Kai. He has composed and authored a number of major works for and books and videos on the shakuhachi, and is renowned for his skilled calligraphy, notably the shakuhachi scores in ACollections of Honkyoku and A Collection of Randô Fukuda.
The three Japanese artists, above, are the main instructors at the Kokusai Shakuhachi Kenshu Kan (International Shakuhachi Research Centre) in Okayama. All three were invited performer/teachers at the 1st, 2nd and 3rd World Shakuhachi Festivals (1994 Okayama Japan; 1998 Boulder CO USA; 2002 Tokyo Japan), and the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Australian Shakuhachi Festivals. They also taught at the Shakuhachi Summer Camp of the Rockies (USA) in 2002, with Kakizakai there in 2003.
Christopher Blasdel
Christopher Yohmei Blasdel, born in Texas, began the shakuhachi and studies of Japanese music in 1972 with shakuhachi master, Living NAtional Treasure Goro Yamaguchi. He received a teaching license and the professional name "Yohmei" from Yamaguchi in 1984. At the same time, he completed graduate work in ethnomusicology at Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music. A permanent resident of Japan, Blasdel maintains a balance between traditional shakuhachi music, modern compositions and cross-genre work with a great variety of well-known musicians, dancers, poets, and painters, both Western and Eastern. Blasdel's award winning book, The Single Tone, A Personal Journey into Shakuhachi Music, originally written in Japanese, was recently published. See Ethnomusicology On Line for a review of the book.
Stan Richardson
Mr. Richardson has studied the Japanese flute for over twenty years and travels extensively as a practitioner and teacher of the shakuhachi flute as meditation. He has recorded with the Turtle Creek Chorale and tours regularly around the United States. He has also performed throughout Japan with members of the Ki-Sui-An Shakuhachi Dojo. Stan currently resides in Dallas, Texas, where he teaches shakuhachi. His recording, Shakuhachi Meditation Music has become one of the best selling shakuhachi CDs in the USA.
Riley Lee
Dr. Lee was introduced to the shakuhachi in 1970 on his first visit to Japan, the start of an intensive 7-year study of the instrument, as well as taiko (festival drums). He was honoured in 1980 as the first non-Japanese dai shihan (Grand Master) in the shakuhachi tradition. Riley has lived in Australia since 1986. He has a PhD in musicology from Sydney University. He performs, lectures, and teaches extensively in Australia, Europe, Asia, and North America. In 1997, he co-founded both TaikOz, with Ian Cleworth, and the Australian Shakuhachi Society. Since 1980, he has made more than 50 commercially released and internationally distributed recordings.
Lee was an invited performer/teacher at the 1st, 2nd and 3rd World Shakuhachi Festivals (1994 Okayama Japan; 1998 Boulder CO USA; 2002 Tokyo Japan), and all four Australian Shakuhachi Festivals. He has taught at the Shakuhachi Summer Camp of the Rockies (USA) every year since 1999. In 2003, he became the first shakuhachi specialist to be invited by Princeton University (USA) as one of its Visiting Fellows.
Andrew MacGregor
Andrew MacGregor started shakuhachi training in 1985, and concentrated on Honkyoku, the music handed down through the Zen Buddhist tradition. In 1993 Andrew changed the course of his life and travelled to Japan where he spent an intensive period of study. Andrew MacGregor conducted his first Solo recital in 1995, and since then has actively performed in Australia and Japan. Although he loves traditional Japanese music, recently his interest has extended more to western-influenced music and is keen to promote Japanese music as ìclassical musicî. Andrew MacGregor was a finalist in the 2003 All-Japan National Music (Hôgaku) Competition in Japan
Bronwyn Kirkpatrick
Bronwyn Kirkpatrick is a shihan (master) of the shakuhachi who has studied with Grand Master Dr. Riley Lee in Australia since 1997. She holds a Bachelor of Music Degree in clarinet performance, graduating with Distinction in 1994. Bronwyn has played the shakuhachi with the Bell Shakespeare Theatre Company, the Sydney Dance Company and TaikOz. In 2003, she recorded her first solo CD entitled "Moon". In 2004, Bronwyn was invited to play at shakuhachi festivals in New York and Japan. She has also been awarded a Churchill Fellowship, which will enable her to undertake further study of the shakuhachi in Japan at the end of 2004.
