Riley Lee
Encyclopedia
Riley Kelly Lee is an American
-born Australia
n-based shakuhachi
player and teacher. In 1980 he became the first non-Japanese person to attain the rank of Dai Shihan (grand master) in the shakuhachi tradition. He is a recipient of two of the most revered lineages of shakuhachi playing, descending from the original Zen Buddhist
'priests of nothingness' of Edo
. His first teachers were Hoshida Ichizan II and Chikuho Sakai II. His present teacher is Katsuya Yokoyama.
, of a Chinese father and Caucasian mother. He moved to Shawnee, Oklahoma
in 1957. He became the bass player of the award winning rock band "The Workouts" when he was 13. He and his family moved to Hawaii
in 1966. He first heard the shakuhachi in 1967 while attending high school in Hawaii, on an LP recording brought home by his elder brother. About the same time, his father gave him a dongxiao
, a Chinese bamboo flute whose ancestry is shared with the shakuhachi, and taught him an old Chinese folksong on it.
He first went to Japan
in 1970, and returned in 1971, when he began his shakuhachi studies. He lived there continuously until 1977. Patricia and Riley's twin daughters, Aiyana and Marieke, were born in 1979 in Kahuku
, Oahu
. He and his family live in Sydney
and Hawaii.
(festival drums) and shakuhachi with Ondekoza (now called Kodo), a group of traditional Japanese musicians. They performed with such groups as the Boston Symphony Orchestra
, and at venues such as Kennedy Center
, Roundhouse Theatre (London), Espace Pierre Cardin (Paris), and the Boston Symphony Hall.
After returning to Honolulu with his wife Patricia in 1978, he began teaching privately and performing. He founded the Chikuho School of Shakuhachi of Hawaii. He was a lecturer of the shakuhachi at the University of Hawaii
, where he completed his BA and MA degrees. He and Patricia left for Australia in 1986 so that he could take up a PhD fellowship in ethnomusicology (on the transmission of the Zen Buddhist repertoire of the shakuhachi) at the University of Sydney
. His PhD dissertation is published by UMI (USA). He was an East-West Center grantee in 1985-1986 and a Japan Foundation
fellow in 1988-1989. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the University of Western Sydney
in 1997.
He has published scholarly articles and book reviews in leading national and international musicology journals, such as Ethnomusicology and Asian Music. He has translated for journals such as Contemporary Music Review.
He has been instrumental in creating a professional presence of traditional Japanese music in Australia. He has introduced the shakuhachi to a diverse audience as both a soloist and with other performers of such instruments as harp
, cello
, saxophone
, tabla
, guitar
, didgeridoo
, and symphony orchestra. He helped found the Australian Shakuhachi Society in 1996. His request in 1988 to the Sawai Koto School in Japan that a koto player be sent to Australia facilitated the immigration to Australia of Satsuki Odamura.
In 1995, with Ian Cleworth, he co-founded TaikOz, a Japanese festival drum group based in Australia. It has since become one of Australia's premier performance groups, acclaimed both at home and in Japan. He performed with the Sydney Dance Company
in the 1999 Australian season of Graham Murphy
's Air and Other Invisible Forces, touring the USA at the end of 2000 and Europe in 2001 with this production.
He has made over 50 recordings internationally, many featuring his own compositions.
On 1 January 2000, Riley Lee was seen, with five other musicians, on an internationally televised program, ushering in the new millennium from the top of the sails of the Sydney Opera House
. In 2002 and 2003, Riley Lee performed in Hawaii, New Mexico
, Texas, California
, England
, Austria
, Switzerland
, and Japan, and gave numerous concerts throughout Australia, as well as in the Woodford and National Folk Festivals, Adelaide Festival
, and the Sacred Music Festival in Brisbane. In 2003, he was Visiting Fellow at Princeton University
, New Jersey
, the first shakuhachi player ever to be so honoured. He has been given a second Fellowship at Princeton, and will be lecturing in the Comparative Literature Department during the spring semester (Feb-June) 2009.
He is the Artistic Director and Chair of the Executive Committee of the World Shakuhachi Festival 2008, a four day event held in Sydney 4–8 July 2008, at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music
and the City Recital Hall
. The event featured thirty concerts, workshops, forums, seminars and other events. Seventy of the world's leading shakuhachi players attended as invited performers, making it the largest event in the history of the shakuhachi.
With TaikOz and Synergy
, he performed Gerard Brophy
's The Book of Clouds, a work commissioned by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
. He has also appeared and recorded with the harpist Marshall McGuire
.
Riley Lee started teaching breathing workshops in the late 1980s, at the suggestion of one of his students, well-known Sydney acupuncturist
Ross Penman. Riley has since refined and expanded his repertoire of exercises, gleaned from a number of sources and from his long and focused relationship with shakuhachi. The exercises are designed to create an awareness of one's breath while at the same time, improving the strength and control of the muscles used in breathing. His workshops last from one to six hours, and single sessions have been attended by as many as two thousand people.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-born Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n-based shakuhachi
Shakuhachi
The is a Japanese end-blown flute. It is traditionally made of bamboo, but versions now exist in ABS and hardwoods. It was used by the monks of the Fuke school of Zen Buddhism in the practice of...
player and teacher. In 1980 he became the first non-Japanese person to attain the rank of Dai Shihan (grand master) in the shakuhachi tradition. He is a recipient of two of the most revered lineages of shakuhachi playing, descending from the original Zen Buddhist
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
'priests of nothingness' of Edo
Edo
, also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...
. His first teachers were Hoshida Ichizan II and Chikuho Sakai II. His present teacher is Katsuya Yokoyama.
Personal life
Riley Lee was born in Plainview, TexasPlainview, Texas
Plainview is a city in and the county seat of Hale County, Texas, United States. The population was 22,336 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Plainview is located at ....
, of a Chinese father and Caucasian mother. He moved to Shawnee, Oklahoma
Shawnee, Oklahoma
Shawnee is a city in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 29,857 at the 2010 census. The city is part of the Oklahoma City-Shawnee Combined Statistical Area; it is also the county seat of Pottawatomie County and the principal city of the Shawnee Micropolitan Statistical...
in 1957. He became the bass player of the award winning rock band "The Workouts" when he was 13. He and his family moved to Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
in 1966. He first heard the shakuhachi in 1967 while attending high school in Hawaii, on an LP recording brought home by his elder brother. About the same time, his father gave him a dongxiao
Xiao (flute)
The xiao is a Chinese vertical end-blown flute. It is generally made of dark brown bamboo . It is also sometimes called dòngxiāo , dòng meaning "hole." An ancient name for the xiāo is shùdí The xiao is a Chinese vertical end-blown flute. It is generally made of dark brown bamboo (called...
, a Chinese bamboo flute whose ancestry is shared with the shakuhachi, and taught him an old Chinese folksong on it.
He first went to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in 1970, and returned in 1971, when he began his shakuhachi studies. He lived there continuously until 1977. Patricia and Riley's twin daughters, Aiyana and Marieke, were born in 1979 in Kahuku
Kahuku, Hawai'i
Kahuku is a census-designated place in the Koolauloa District on the island of Oahu, County of Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. In the Hawaiian language, ka huku means "the projection", presumably a reference to Kahuku Point nearby, the northernmost point of land on the island of Oahu...
, Oahu
Oahu
Oahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...
. He and his family live in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and Hawaii.
Career
From 1973 through 1977, he toured internationally as a fulltime performer of taikoTaiko
means "drum" in Japanese . Outside Japan, the word is often used to refer to any of the various Japanese drums and to the relatively recent art-form of ensemble taiko drumming...
(festival drums) and shakuhachi with Ondekoza (now called Kodo), a group of traditional Japanese musicians. They performed with such groups as the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
, and at venues such as Kennedy Center
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is a performing arts center located on the Potomac River, adjacent to the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C...
, Roundhouse Theatre (London), Espace Pierre Cardin (Paris), and the Boston Symphony Hall.
After returning to Honolulu with his wife Patricia in 1978, he began teaching privately and performing. He founded the Chikuho School of Shakuhachi of Hawaii. He was a lecturer of the shakuhachi at the University of Hawaii
University of Hawaii
The University of Hawaii System, formally the University of Hawaii and popularly known as UH, is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment...
, where he completed his BA and MA degrees. He and Patricia left for Australia in 1986 so that he could take up a PhD fellowship in ethnomusicology (on the transmission of the Zen Buddhist repertoire of the shakuhachi) at the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
. His PhD dissertation is published by UMI (USA). He was an East-West Center grantee in 1985-1986 and a Japan Foundation
Japan Foundation
The was established in 1972 by an Act of the Japanese Diet as a special legal entity to undertake international dissemination of Japanese culture, and became an independent administrative institution under the jurisdiction of the Foreign Ministry of Japan on 1 October 2003 under the "Independent...
fellow in 1988-1989. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the University of Western Sydney
University of Western Sydney
The University of Western Sydney, also known as UWS, is a multi-campus university in the Greater Western region of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
in 1997.
He has published scholarly articles and book reviews in leading national and international musicology journals, such as Ethnomusicology and Asian Music. He has translated for journals such as Contemporary Music Review.
He has been instrumental in creating a professional presence of traditional Japanese music in Australia. He has introduced the shakuhachi to a diverse audience as both a soloist and with other performers of such instruments as harp
Harp
The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
, cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
, saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
, tabla
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
, guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, didgeridoo
Didgeridoo
The didgeridoo is a wind instrument developed by Indigenous Australians of northern Australia around 1,500 years ago and still in widespread usage today both in Australia and around the world. It is sometimes described as a natural wooden trumpet or "drone pipe"...
, and symphony orchestra. He helped found the Australian Shakuhachi Society in 1996. His request in 1988 to the Sawai Koto School in Japan that a koto player be sent to Australia facilitated the immigration to Australia of Satsuki Odamura.
In 1995, with Ian Cleworth, he co-founded TaikOz, a Japanese festival drum group based in Australia. It has since become one of Australia's premier performance groups, acclaimed both at home and in Japan. He performed with the Sydney Dance Company
Sydney Dance Company
The Sydney Dance Company is one of Australia's most successful and well-known contemporary dance companies. The company was founded in 1969 as the dance-in-education group Ballet in a Nutshell by Suzanne Musitz , later changing its name to Athletes and Dancers, and Dance Company ...
in the 1999 Australian season of Graham Murphy
Graham Murphy
Graham Murphy is a record producer, musician and songwriter. He was born in Dublin, Ireland.- Biography :Graham started out as a session musician/programmer working with leading Irish acts including Aslan and Whipping Boy. Around the same time he began writing with artist Perry Blake...
's Air and Other Invisible Forces, touring the USA at the end of 2000 and Europe in 2001 with this production.
He has made over 50 recordings internationally, many featuring his own compositions.
On 1 January 2000, Riley Lee was seen, with five other musicians, on an internationally televised program, ushering in the new millennium from the top of the sails of the Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
. In 2002 and 2003, Riley Lee performed in Hawaii, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
, Texas, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, and Japan, and gave numerous concerts throughout Australia, as well as in the Woodford and National Folk Festivals, Adelaide Festival
Adelaide Festival of Arts
The Adelaide Festival of Arts is an arts festival held biennially in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Although locally considered to be one of the world's greatest celebrations of the arts, that is internationally renowned and the pre-eminent cultural event in Australia, it is actually...
, and the Sacred Music Festival in Brisbane. In 2003, he was Visiting Fellow at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, the first shakuhachi player ever to be so honoured. He has been given a second Fellowship at Princeton, and will be lecturing in the Comparative Literature Department during the spring semester (Feb-June) 2009.
He is the Artistic Director and Chair of the Executive Committee of the World Shakuhachi Festival 2008, a four day event held in Sydney 4–8 July 2008, at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music
Sydney Conservatorium of Music
The Sydney Conservatorium of Music is one of the oldest and most prestigious music schools in Australia...
and the City Recital Hall
City Recital Hall
City Recital Hall, or City Recital Hall Angel Place, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, is a purpose-built concert venue with the capacity for 1,238 guests seated over three tiers of sloped seating...
. The event featured thirty concerts, workshops, forums, seminars and other events. Seventy of the world's leading shakuhachi players attended as invited performers, making it the largest event in the history of the shakuhachi.
With TaikOz and Synergy
Synergy
Synergy may be defined as two or more things functioning together to produce a result not independently obtainable.The term synergy comes from the Greek word from , , meaning "working together".-Definitions and usages:...
, he performed Gerard Brophy
Gerard Brophy
Gerard Louis Brophy is a first-class cricketer, presently contracted to Yorkshire. He has also played for Ireland, Free State, Northamptonshire and Transvaal in a well travelled career....
's The Book of Clouds, a work commissioned by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Melbourne, Australia. It has 100 permanent musicians. Melbourne has the longest continuous history of orchestral music of any Australian city and the MSO is the oldest professional orchestra in Australia...
. He has also appeared and recorded with the harpist Marshall McGuire
Marshall McGuire
Marshall McGuire is a renowned Australian harpist, teacher, conductor and musical administrator. He has been described as the world's greatest champion of new music for the harp. Tristram Cary has written "A new school of harp music is emerging from the enterprise of this innovative master...
.
Riley Lee started teaching breathing workshops in the late 1980s, at the suggestion of one of his students, well-known Sydney acupuncturist
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is a type of alternative medicine that treats patients by insertion and manipulation of solid, generally thin needles in the body....
Ross Penman. Riley has since refined and expanded his repertoire of exercises, gleaned from a number of sources and from his long and focused relationship with shakuhachi. The exercises are designed to create an awareness of one's breath while at the same time, improving the strength and control of the muscles used in breathing. His workshops last from one to six hours, and single sessions have been attended by as many as two thousand people.
APRA Awards
- 2009APRA Awards of 2009The Australasian Performing Right Association Awards of 2009 are a series of awards which include the APRA Music Awards, Classical Music Awards, and Screen Music Awards. The APRA Music Awards ceremony occurred on 23 June at the Peninsula in Melbourne, they were presented by APRA and the...
Outstanding Contribution by an Individual win for his work on the 2008 World Shakuhachi Festival.
External links
- The International Shakuhachi Society - Biography: Lee, Dr Riley Kelly
- Riley Lee - Sound of Bamboo
- Riley Lee's Discography at Smithsonian FolkwaysSmithsonian FolkwaysSmithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was founded in 1987 after the family of Moses Asch, founder of Folkways...