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music for quiet moments

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RILEY LEE. SHAKUHACHI PLAYER SINCE 1971. GRAND MASTER SINCE 1980.

Riley Lee was the first non-Japanese to attain the rank of dai shihan or Grand Master and now is a consummate teacher, performer and collaborator with other musicians of all genres.

Riley Lee has been playing the shakuhachi for 50 years. His repertoire spans many musical genres. This site is devoted entirely to music that can help you be mindful of your precious moments.


Shakuhachi player since 1971
Grand Master since 1980
Grandfather since 2010

“Remember the lips where the wind-breath originated, and let your note be clear. Don’t try to end it. Be your note.”

Rumi


Riley Lee

How I Began

Breathe deeply… breathe slowly


music for quiet moments. . 

Riley's most recent, acclaimed recordings Noble Greenness, Divine Secrets, and Wisdom are now available.

quotes from the Press:

 4.8/5 (3000+ Reviews)

Sydney Morning Herald - [Lee’s} sound is so astonishingly pure: it aches with the sadness of loss and the sadness of wisdom, pulses with the joy of being alive and whispers of an elegance almost too exotic to be true.
International Herald Tribune - “Affecting, moving, admirable, the performing techniques involved, especially the breath control, defy belief”.
New York Times - “…atmospheric, even spell-binding music”, “Echoes of eternal time…haunting”
Sydney Morning Herald - “He is, by any standards, a remarkable musician with an amazing command of fractional inflections of tones, achieved with a wide range of finger and breath attacks on every note”. “… Beautifully evocative sounds”
The Australian - “Lee could serve as any performer’s model in his ability to capture the attention of his audience immediately and straightforwardly”.
Sydney Morning Herald - “…a superb musician and an innovative and prolific composer.” “The shakuhachi is a transcendentally beautiful instrument and Lee’s playing has an emotional and meditative power which overwhelms his obvious technical expertise”.

more Riley Lee Music

Listen to

Riley Lee on Spotify and on YouTube

Almost all of my music is on Spotify, with more being added to the Riley Lee channel all the time.

I’m also regularly adding tracks and playlists to my Riley Lee Music YouTube channel.

Join the thousands who are already following my Spotify and my YouTube channels.

Spotify

Follow Riley Lee on Spotify

YouTube

Subscribe to Riley Lee Music on YouTube

CD REVIEWS

Reviews by All Music guide and other.

About Riley Lee

Riley Lee first went to Japan in 1970 to work at the World Expo in Osaka. He began playing the shakuhachi in 1971.


He is the recipient of two of the oldest and most venerated lineages of traditional shakuhachi, which can be traced back to the Zen Buddhist komusô, or “priests of nothingness” of the Edo period in Japan.

In 1980, he became the first non-Japanese to attain the rank of dai shihan or Grand Master.


Riley’s music is meditation. He frequently gives benefit concerts for Zen Buddhist groups worldwide. His music has been used worldwide in yoga and tai chi classes, and by massage, acupuncture, and other bodywork therapists. Many of his albums are particularly valued by mothers and mothers-to-be and by their midwives and others working in pre- and post-natal care.

Learn to play

the Shakuhachi

In order to play shakuhachi honkyoku (Zen Buddhist pieces), one must make them ‘one’s own’. In order to do this, one must, paradoxically give them away.


I teach whenever and wherever possible. I am based in Sydney Australia, however I am on tour several times a year, Check my schedule.


If I am in a location near you and you don’t mind coming to me, it’s likely that I can fit in a lesson with you.

The world needs your music.

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