Riley Lee

Riley Lee is a shakuhachi player and teacher who has lived in Australia since 1986 and is based near Manly, New South Wales. Born in Texas and raised partly in Hawaii, he went to Japan in the early 1970s, began studying the bamboo flute with Chikuho Sakai, and in 1980 was made a dai shihan, or grand master, later studying with Katsuya Yokoyama. He toured for several years with the drum group Ondekoza, then taught at the University of Hawaii before earning a doctorate in ethnomusicology at the University of Sydney, writing on how the Zen repertoire of the instrument, the honkyoku, is handed down.

For him the shakuhachi is first a meditative practice built on the breath, and he has recorded a large catalogue of contemplative music. He gives online lessons by appointment to players of every level, from complete beginners to professionals, and keeps a password-protected archive of scores and recordings from his Chikuho lineage for students. Drawing on decades of breathing workshops, he has also made a self-paced course of simple conscious breathing exercises, with versions on Insight Timer, and writes short articles on playing, the instrument and its history.