About
Eclectic in styles and notations, Michael Lee’s music has been cited for its “rhythmical drive [and] traditional harmonic touches that are both surprising and inevitable” [Portland Herald Press on his music performed at the The Gamper Festival of Contemporary Music held every Summer at Bowdoin]; “For all of the strengths of the other pieces, it is Michael Lee’s that made the most impact on this listener. But all six pieces are strong, and we should high-five Navona for bringing more new chamber works, and indeed new composers, to the public’s attention” [Colin Clarke at Fanfare Magazine (review will be released in 2024] on Lee’s 2020: Danse Macabre (’23);
“Elsewhere, tradition is gleefully thrown to the wind—such as with Lee’s stunning Farewell… for string quartet, with its ever-shifting rhythms, timbres, and moods” [Navona Records]; “fluid drama [and] focused intensity” [AblazeRecords Millennial Masters Vol. 2 on Capriccio for Violin and Piano], and “promising composition for the future” [Letter from BMI on Metropolis Concerto for Piano and Ensemble (2009)].
He is an active composer and teacher with a pedagogy background in composition, theory, post-tonal analysis, and aural skills. Based in Los Angeles, he tries to discover different techniques and approaches for expanding one’s pitch language. Most recently, the Juventas New Music Ensemble recorded Part I of his recent composition for the string trio, Danse Macabre (Part I was released under the title 2020: Danse Macabre) which was commercially released on October 27, 2023. A graduate of the USC Thornton School of Music (D.M.A. 2017), the Juilliard School (M.M. 2012), and the Eastman School of Music (B.M. 2008). Born in Atlanta, GA, and raised in Maryland, he can play the trumpet and piano, and also speak Korean.
His compositions have been performed by the Albany Symphony, Juilliard Orchestra, International Contemporary Ensemble, USC Thornton Symphony, Hear Now!, Thornton Edge, Lyris Quartet, Chamber Music of Rochester, New York Virtuoso Singers, Loadbang, Ensemble ARI, New Orleans Chamber Orchestra, Arapahoe Philharmonic, Moravian Philharmonic Chamber Players, Kharkov Philharmonic, Oradea State Philharmonic, Juventas New Music Ensemble, Serrenata String Quartet, ALEA III Contemporary Ensemble, and the Boston’s New Music Initiative. His works have also been performed at music festivals (most recently at Hear Now! in Los Angeles with the International Contemporary Ensemble this year, April 26, 2024), concert series, and a variety of composition workshops, including Bowdoin International Music Festival’s Gamper Festival of Contemporary Music, Illinois State University’s Red Note Music Festival, Indiana State University’s MusicNow!, Utah Arts Festival, Oregon Bach Festival Composers’ Symposium, FUBiS (Summer studies in Berlin, Germany), European American Musical Alliance, the Albany Consort (concert and workshop led by Maestro David Alan Miller), along with many terrific soloists including Jiwon Evelyn Kwark, Nic Gerpe, Han Chen, Hui Wu, HaEun Lee, Cameron O’Connor, among many others. His music has received recognition from the Fanfare Magazine, Baltimore Sun, Portland Herald Press, New York Chronicle, among others.
He is the recipient of the Charles Ives Scholarship from the Academy of Arts and Letters, USC Sadye J. Moss Composition Prize, Arthur Friedman Prize – from Juilliard’s New Works for Orchestra Composition Competition, ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award, Winner of the 2018 New Orleans Chamber Orchestra/Spectri Sonori and An Art Artistry’s International Guitar Composition Competitions, 2009 Letter of praise from BMI for Metropolis Concerto , 1st Prize in the 2013 NACUSA Competition for Farewell…, and the Eastman School of Music’s Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers Memorial Prizes.
A committed and passionate teacher, he is currently a lecturer of music theory/composition at Chapman University’s Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music, he has also taught at USC Thornton School of Music.
Michael Lee brainstorming new ideas for his next composition
Listen to Come What May, premiered by Harold Rosenbaum and the New York Virtuoso Singers