Biography
Shakuhachi master Yoshikazu Iwamoto trained under Baisen Onishi and Katsuya Yokoyama on the traditional Japanese bamboo flute, later gaining widespread domestic attention via frequent live concerts along with broadcasts on Japanese television and radio. International recognition followed, prompting a 1975 concert series in Denmark and a subsequent yearlong artist-in-residence position at Wesleyan University in Connecticut; throughout the opening years of the 1980s he also performed across Brazil, West Germany, and Ireland. Beginning in 1982 Iwamoto held an artist-in-residence post at Dartington College of Arts in Britain, which brought repeated BBC airplay in the ensuing period; he visited Australia in 1985 as soloist alongside the Shizue Sasagawa symphonic orchestra, then delivered more than two dozen appearances with the English National Opera in 1987. Over the years Iwamoto explored shakuhachi combined with taped elements while maintaining a body of traditional and early-twentieth-century Japanese repertoire; he additionally formed the trio Such alongside pianist John Tilbury and percussionist Eddie Prévost, releasing the Morton Feldman-influenced album The Issue at Hand. Further releases encompass The Spirit of Wind, Japan--Art of the Shakuhachi (a set of duets recorded with Katsuya Yokoyama), and The Spirit of Dusk.
Albums
