News

Florida State University composition faculty invited me to work with their student composers in a busy day of activities on April 18, 2024. I gave a composition masterclass where I provided critiques of works by four student composers, offering constructive feedback and insights. My visit also included a presentation of my own music to the students and faculty. The day culminated in a concert by FSU’s new music ensemble, Polymorphia, who performed my Split Screen for piano, keyboard, percussion, and drum set alongside eight student works. The residency served as a fruitful exchange of music and ideas, and will hopefully lead to sustained interaction between the UF and FSU composition areas.

Over the weekend of March 23rd and 24th, the Bozeman Symphony premiered my latest and most significant orchestral work, Inner Life, in two performances. As the third and final commission from the orchestra, the piece marks the culmination of my role as the BSO’s Composer in Residence. Lasting twenty-two minutes, the piece is in three continuous movements and traces a journey of self-discovery. As part of my visit, I also gave a masterclass for composition students at Montana State University and engaged in pre-concert talks for the audience with BSO music director Norman Huynh.

On January 22, ensembleNewSRQ premiered my new piece for violin and percussion, Karst, in Sarasota, Florida. Commissioned by the ensemble, this five-movement piece draws inspiration from the geology and landscapes of Florida. The premiere featured the ensemble’s artistic directors, George Nickson, Dallas Symphony principle percussionist and chair of percussion at Southern Methodist University, and Samantha Bennett, Dallas Opera Orchestra violinist.

My string quartet Engine Trouble secured a permanent spot on scorefollower.com’s YouTube channel, a popular online community for contemporary music, after being selected in the Fall 2023 Follow My Score! Competition. The recording features the inimitable JACK Quartet. See the score-following video at the link below!

My solo cello piece, A certain slant of light, was chosen from 342 submissions for inclusion in the 2023 Society of Composers Inc. Online National Conference, held in June. SCI is the premiere national organization for composers. The performance video featured my wife Emily Austin Smith and was part of a concert program consisting of seven other selected SCI composers.

The second work to be commissioned as part of my role as the Bozeman Symphony’s Composer-in-Residence, The Fire Beneath was written in honor of Yellowstone’s 150th anniversary. I was fortunate enough to travel to the park in September 2022 with my wife and son to gather inspiration and take in the incredible sights. From mountain vistas, a vast lake, picturesque canyons, and rushing waterfalls, to bubbling mud pots, kaleidoscopic pools, and erupting geysers, to bison herds, bugling Elk, and howling wolves, it’s obvious why Yellowstone is considered the crown jewel of America’s National Parks. In a short six-and-a-half minutes of music I made my best attempt to capture the many sides of this singular place.

Over the course of the weekend the piece received four performances from Norman Huynh and the Bozeman Symphony, along with three more performances at family and education concerts.

Hooray! Welcome to the new and vastly improved scottleemusic.net. Here you can learn about who I am, listen to my music, purchase sheet music, find promotional materials, and see what I’ve been up to recently. I’ve worked closely with web designer Traci Larson (https://visualissues.design) to completely redesign my website, hopefully making it easier to find whatever you might be looking for. From this point forward I’ll be taking a bit more of a personal tone with news postings. As always, feel free to get in touch!

As a Hermitage Fellow in residency at the retreat for a two week period, Lee was invited to share his work with the public in an idyllic setting on the beach as part of a program entitled Sounding the Deep: Words and Music Inspired by Nature. He presented selections of Through the Mangrove Tunnels, discussing the historical context of the work and sharing insights into the compositional processes that led to its creation. Actors also performed excerpts of playwright Jessica Huang’s work as part of the program.

Consisting of two pianists and two percussionists, the quartet premiered Lee’s newest chamber work with performances at Second Presbyterian Church in Baltimore and the Lionel Hampton School of Music at the University of Idaho. Featuring prepared piano, synthesizers, percussion, and drum set, Split Screen uses syncopated and funk-based grooves to explore the multiple realities that we find ourselves living in on a moment-to-moment basis.

After more than 30 tours taking in almost every state in the US, the German vocal quintet Amarcord paid musical tribute to the land of opportunity in an entire concert program dedicated to American composers. Lee’s elegy By What Wings, originally written for Amarcord during their 2015 Duke University residency, was performed live for the first time as part of this program at the A Cappella International Festival for Vocal Music in Leipzig, Germany.