Agatsuma, this young artist was awarded the top prize in the Tsugaru Shamisen National Competition, the countryâs most prestigious competition for two consecutive years in 1995 and 1996.
While Agatsuma was receiving attention from mass media, he debuted from Toshiba EMI in Japan with the self-titled album âAgatsumaâ in September 2001, and he won the âTraditional Japanese Music Album of the Yearâ on the 16th Japan Gold Disc Award on that year.
Agatsuma has performed with many overseas artists such as Marcus Miller (Bass), Larry Coryell (G.), Nana Vasconcelos (Perc.), and Sarena Jones (Vo.) He is receiving great reputations by his fresh and unique fusion with Western music, while he keeps the characteristics of the Japanese traditional instrument alive.
Known worldwide simply as Agatsuma, the young Japanese shamisen master with the rock star stance channels the age-old spirit of the traditional Japanese form as effortlessly as he reinvents it with a stew of modern musical idioms.
A true virtuoso, Agatsuma was a prodigy on the banjo-like, long-necked and fretless three-stringed Tsugaru shamisen at age 6, and at age 14 won the top prize in Japan's most prestigious national competition for the genre.
Agatsuma will premiere much of his new material for North American audiences -- as well as spotlight past favorites -- with a series of concerts in April 2004.
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