Richard Stagg is a British orchestral flautist who has been studying and performing on the shakuhachi for over twenty years. Initially he taught himself to play and then was lucky enough to have a substantial course of lessons with the esteemed master, Yoshikazu Iwamoto. He now teaches, performs, makes, repairs, and tunes shakuhachi, thus joining the growing number of non-Japanese players who exist internationally, and who value the instrument for its profound and idiosyncratic tradition, its extraordianry range of tone-colour and the challenge involved in learning to play it.