Artist description Composer

Music Style Original music compositions

Musical Influences Jazz, classical, latin, 20th century music in general

Similar Artists Stravinsky, Prokofief, Shostakovich, Jobim, Bill Evans, Miles

Artist History Thomas Oboe Lee was born in China in 1945. He lived in São Paulo, Brazil, for six years before coming to the United States in 1966. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, he studied composition with William Thomas McKinley, George Russell and Gunther Schuller at the New England Conservatory (1972-76); with Betsy Jolas at Tanglewood (1976) and Earl Kim at Harvard University (1977-81). He currently teaches at Boston College.Mr. Lee has received many awards for his work, among them the Rome Prize Fellowship, the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, two Guggenheim Fellowships, two National Endowment for the Arts Composers Fellowships, two Massachusetts Artists Fellowships, First Prize at the Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards for his String Quartet No. 3 ... "child of Uranus, father of Zeus," the Georges Enesco International Composition Prize, the Koussevitzky Tanglewood Composition Prize, recording grants from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund and the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, residencies at Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony and the Charles Ives Center in Danbury, CT, and Charleston, SC. In 1984, Esquire magazine selected him as one of two composers in its First Annual Register, “The Best Of The New Generation: Men and Women Under 40 Who Are Changing America." He has been commissioned by Amnesty International USA, the Thoreau Society, the Fromm Music Foundation, the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, the American Jazz Philharmonic, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, the Civic Symphony Orchestra of Boston, the Omaha Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Lydian, Kronos, Artaria, Manhattan, and Hawthorne String Quartets, the Díaz Trio, the Raphael Trio, Madam Rubio, the Arto Ensemble, Marimolin, Alea III, Collage, Apple Hill Chamber Players, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and the Cambridge Chamber Players. Additional orchestral performances include those by the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Keith Lockhart, the Charleston Symphony with David Stahl, and the American Composers Orchestras with Gunther Schuller. His music is published by Margun Music, Inc. and is recorded on GM, MCA Classics, Northeastern and Nonesuch Records. A compact disk of his music featuring the Hawthorne String Quartet will soon be released on Koch International Classics. Mr. Lee is also active as a jazz flutist. A recording of his band, Departed Feathers, is available on GM Recordings.

Group Members Solo

Press Reviews "Continuing its fruitful relationship with composer, balletomane, jazz flutist Thomas Oboe Lee, who wrote a stunning 'Orpheus' suite for it two years ago, the Civic [Symphony of Boston] undertook the world premiere performance of his 'Symphony No. 2,' subtitled 'A Phantasmagorey Ballet.' Lee, taking inspiration from cartoonist-poet Edward Gorey, conceived five flights of terpsichorean fancy that must be as fun to play as they are to hear. The glistening surfaces of Lee's music are instantly attractive, but there's substance under the razzle-dazzle, along with a sophistocated feeling for harmony and timbre."- Susan Larson, Boston Globe, March 10, 1998

Location Cambridge, MA - USA

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