Dear friends of the International Shakuhachi Festival Prague,

As its artistic director I would like to let you know that the 2025 edition of the ISFP will be the final one.

While the festival experienced continuous growth in artistic quality and scale, in 2025, the public support of the event was nearly entirely denied. The institutions’ reasoning being that the event is too niche. In the past, we were given positive feedback for fostering diversity and international outreach on the Czech and Prague music scene, unfortunately the policy has apparently changed.

Unwarned, we are now facing a crisis with only months remaining till the festival opening concert.

Since 2007, the festival has become a cornerstone of the shakuhachi community in Europe, raising and educating its members. Outstanding masters from Japan and around the globe have kindly come to Prague to share their skill and sonic presence. Many Europeans have started and deepened their lifelong pursuit of the fleeting sound of the shakuhachi. Some have even ventured to become professional players.
Me being one of them. In the international shakuhachi community, I have found some of the most inspiring and elegant human beings that changed my life. It has been my honor to lead the festival for the past years. And I will always be thankful for all I have learned in terms of music, dramaturgy and human kindness.

Over its history, the festival produced dozens of world and European premieres and countless moments of shared artistic exploration and cross genre collaborations. Since 2016, our festival has regularly featured new music for shakuhachi and large ensembles thanks to our partnership with the award winning BERG Orchestra. Engaging Czech and international composers, musicians and artists was part of our vision to take the shakuhachi onto the world stage. It fills us with pride and gratitude to look back at the outstanding events we created together.

“Inter arma silent Musae”
An international event of such scale relies on stability which then in turn nurtures artistic quality and cultural diversity. We now realise that despite the long record of highbrow as well as community events, our funding can be removed at any given time. We don’t see the stability that once gave us hope that our event can prove to be sustainable. Furthermore, we see tempestuous developments on the world scene that promise a turbulent era ahead.

We would like to thank everyone who has been part of the festival team as well as all the artists who came to Prague over the years. You made the magic happen! Although our means were limited and we could not always provide everything larger festivals can, we hope that you never had to question our gratitude for your generosity. Above all, Vlastival Matoušek and Christopher Yomei Blasdel, fellow co-founders of the festival, thank you for your vision, trust and support.

ISFP 2025 – the 15th and final Shakuhachi Festival in Prague
Rather than letting the festival implode and fade out, we want to celebrate it on a high note. We’ve prepared an outstanding program for this year’s festival and would love to have you join us in Prague to mark the end of this journey.

If you cannot come, but would like to support the festival nonetheless, we would greatly appreciate any donations. It would be wonderful, if we could raise 15,000 EUR towards artists fees and venues that our festival is currently missing. It would make our parting with this piece of shakuhachi history less bitter.

We would be honored if you could help us write this final chapter and close the book on the festival gracefully, creating a celebration of all the shakuhachi community has accomplished.

Warmly,

Marek Kimei Matvija
Artistic director ISFP 2025

ISFP 2025 website: www.isfp.cz
Learning programs at ISFP 2025: https://isfp.cz/2025/en/event-type/learning-events/
Donation details: https://isfp.cz/2025/en/give-and-join/support-us/