Celebrate the Opening of MIM’s New Special Exhibition, The Magical Flute: Beauty, Enchantment, and Power
PHOENIX (October 17, 2025) — The Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) celebrates the opening of its new special exhibition, The Magical Flute: Beauty, Enchantment, and Power, with an Opening Weekend Signature Event Friday, November 7, through Sunday, November 9. Throughout the weekend, guests can enjoy live music, instrument demonstrations, and curator talks that celebrate the world’s first wind instrument and its resounding influence on cultures around the world.
A collaboration among MIM’s curators, The Magical Flute showcases more than 100 remarkable flutes from the dawn of music to the present day and explores the many ways in which people throughout history have used flutes of all shapes, sizes, and materials to express the rich human experience.
All three days of The Magical Flute Opening Weekend Signature Event feature demonstrations of an array of flutes—including a demonstration of a rare double contrabass flute—by the internationally acclaimed Desert Echoes Flute Project. Desert Echoes will also perform a varied program of works that includes the Southwest premiere of an eponymous composition written for the group.
On Friday, historical flute collector Mark Leone joins Matthew Zeller, MIM’s curator for Europe, for a conversation about collecting, maintaining, and playing some of the world’s finest and rarest flutes. Other Friday highlights include a performance of expressive flute music across centuries from flutist Jarrett May of the Phoenix Symphony and a curator talk from Mike Silvers, curator of education, about fife and drum music from around the world. (Silvers also gives the talk on Saturday.)
Saturday’s programming includes a curator talk from Rich Walter, curator for United States / Canada, about the how the flute has evolved throughout the history of North America. Eddie Chia-Hao Hsu, curator for Asia and Oceania and an accomplished flutist, demonstrates the Chinese dizi and xiao flutes, and Phoenix-based Irish rock band Kilted Spirit gives a performance highlighting the Irish tin whistle.
On Sunday, Hsu delivers a curator talk on the diverse flutes of Asian and Oceanic cultures, and Daniel Piper, curator for Latin America and the Middle East, talks about pre-Columbian flutes, panpipes, and ocarinas.
On Saturday and Sunday, Grammy-nominated flutist Aaron White, a musician of Northern Ute and Diné heritage, performs Native American flute music, and vocalists from the Arizona Opera perform a selection of works from Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute.
Each day also features family-friendly activities, such as craft station where guests can make a pan flute, and guests can capture memories in MIM’s hands-free photo booth.
During the Signature Event weekend, guests can purchase globally inspired cuisine at Café Allegro and find exhibition-related merchandise, including the catalog for The Magical Flute: Beauty, Enchantment, and Power, at the Museum Store.
Opening Weekend Signature Event activities are included with paid museum admission and free for members. Entry to the Target Gallery requires special exhibition admission.
Tickets for The Magical Flute are $7 for ages 20 and up, $4 for ages 4–19, and free for ages 3 and under.
For more information about the opening weekend and other exhibition programming, visit mim.org/.
The Magical Flute: Beauty, Enchantment, and Power Opening Weekend is supported by the Arizona Flute Society. Programming is supported in part by the City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture and Arizona Commission on the Arts.
The Musical Instrument Museum is located at 4725 E. Mayo Boulevard in Phoenix (corner of Tatum and Mayo Boulevards, just south of Loop 101). For general museum information and a full schedule of events, visit mim.org/ or call 480.478.6000.
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About MIM
The Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) enriches our world by collecting, preserving, and making accessible an astonishing variety of musical instruments and performance videos from every country in the world. MIM offers guests a welcoming and fun experience, incomparable interactive technology, dynamic programming, and exceptional musical performances. MIM fosters appreciation of the world’s diverse cultures by showing how we innovate, adapt, and learn from each other to create music—the language of the soul. To learn more about MIM, visit mim.org/.
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Media Contact
Sydney Rich
Communications Manager
sydney.rich@MIM.org
480.245.6953
