News

Lee spoke to the student composers at the University of South Carolina via zoom on Friday, sharing recordings of his compositions and discussing his approach to writing music.

Lee’s piece for solo cello, A certain slant of light, was selected through an international call for scores to be included on the Contemporary Art Music Project’s (CAMP) 2022 festival. The work was performed by cellist Emily Austin Smith on the third concert of the festival at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts in Tampa on Saturday.

Two of the top large student ensembles at the University of the Florida featured works by Lee in recent concerts. In November, the UF Symphony Orchestra performed Anadyr under the baton of Director Raymond Chobaz on a concert that featured the works of American composers, which also included Christopher Rouse and Michael Daugherty. On Tuesday the UF Wind Symphony under the direction of David Waybright gave the world premiere of a new transcription of Vicious Circles for Wind Ensemble on a program that also included Husa’s Music for Prague, 1968.

Lee presented a faculty composition recital consisting entirely of his chamber works at the University of Florida on Thursday. The program featured UF performance faculty, guest artists, and graduate students, and included six pieces: Between the Lines, A certain slant of light, Evasive Maneuvers, Bottom Heavy, Tourbillon, and Liftoff.

Guitarist Silviu Ciulei and clarinetist Jeffrey Brooks premiered Lee’s newest chamber work, Evasive Maneuvers, at a recital at the University of Florida on Wednesday. The piece features slinking clarinet tunes and syncopated guitar grooves that weave around each other in different streams of rhythmic activity, sometimes seemingly at odds, and sometimes coming together. Knowing Ciulei’s extensive background in flamenco, Lee incorporated a number of noisy and virtuosic flamenco guitar techniques into the piece, such as the rasgueado, which involves the rapid strumming of a note or chord with each finger in quick succession. The clarinet complements the guitar with trilling and rapid flourishes, also serving to introduce much of the melodic material throughout the piece.

Lee’s The Last Best Place opened the Bozeman Symphony’s first concert weekend of the 2021/22 season, sharing the program with Barber’s Cello Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony. The work was commissioned as part of Lee’s role as the orchestra’s first-ever Composer-In-Residence, and was inspired by the city of Bozeman. The weekend included two performances with over 1,400 in the audience, along with over 1,700 viewers for the livestream.

Lee was featured on Spokane Public Radio’s Northwest Arts Review, where he and host Jim Tevenan discussed his new Composer in Residence position with the Bozeman Symphony. Their conversation delves into Lee’s compositional background, influences, and eclectic musical language, finishing with an excerpt of Lee’s Through the Mangrove Tunnels.

As the Bozeman Symphony’s Composer-in-Residence, Lee co-curated (alongside Music Director Norman Huynh) this new series, the first of its kind in Bozeman, which explores contemporary music in a creative and accessible way. Current Commotion marked the Bozeman Symphony’s inaugural performance at the Rialto, a music venue on Main Street in the center of Bozeman’s bustling downtown district. The program, featuring Lee’s Hurry Up and Wait alongside other exciting pieces of new music, was presented in a cabaret-style format featuring Bozeman Symphony orchestra musicians, and was live-streamed online.

This month Through the Mangrove Tunnels was reviewed by Take Effect and featured in Avant Music News’ Picks of the Week. Giving the album a 8/10, Take Effect described it as “a listen that’s capable of being both dark yet ethereal.” “Lee’s unconventional approach to harmonies and bold approach to songwriting might be quite complicated, but it’s also easily accessible to those willing to embark on the journey.”

Copland House announces the debut of a new six-program virtual series called Cultivated Spaces, featuring the World Premieres of all the new works Copland House commissioned for its CULTIVATE 2020 emerging composers institute. Each Cultivated Spaces livestream spotlights one of CULTIVATE’s six 2020 Fellows and their work in a complete performance by the Music from Copland House ensemble, “one of the leading champions of contemporary music” (Louisville Weekly). Each program begins with a brief introduction by the featured composer, who returns for a lively post-performance conversation with CULTIVATE’s Director, Grammy-nominated composer-clarinetist Derek Bermel. The free, 25- to 30-minute programs, were filmed at Merkin Hall in Manhattan, and are accessible at ICareIfYouListen.tv. Lee’s Between the Lines will premiere on April 20.