Thomas Oboe Lee
Thomas Oboe Lee | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 5, 1945 |
| Occupation | Composer |
Thomas Oboe Lee (born September 5, 1945) is a Chinese-American composer.[1]
Early life and education
[edit]Lee was born in Beijing, China, on September 5, 1945.[2] His family left China in 1949, lived in Hong Kong, and later relocated to São Paulo, Brazil, before Lee emigrated to the United States in 1966.[3]
Lee began his musical education in Brazil and performed as a jazz flutist with musicians such as Chico Buarque.[2] After moving to the United States, he earned a bachelor's degree in music from the University of Pittsburgh.[3] He studied at the New England Conservatory of Music from 1972 to 1976 under William Thomas McKinley, George Russell, and Gunther Schuller.[3] In 1976, he attended the Tanglewood Music Center to study with Betsy Jolas.[3] He studied at Harvard University from 1977 to 1981 with Earl Kim.[3]
Career
[edit]Lee served on the faculty at the Berklee College of Music during the late 1970s. He joined the music faculty at Boston College in 1990.[4][3]
In 1981, Lee and five other composers from the New England Conservatory founded the collective "Composers in Red Sneakers."[5] The group organized contemporary music concerts in the Boston-Cambridge area and released a collaborative LP in 1984.[5] Lee left the collective in 1986 to live in Italy for 12 months on a Rome Prize Fellowship.[6]
Lee's catalog includes more than 270 works, including 10 symphonies, 15 concerti, 23 string quartets, and the two-act opera The Inman Diaries.[1] The opera, based on the diary of the Boston recluse Arthur Crew Inman, premiered in Boston in 2007 and received a mixed review in The Boston Globe.[7] His 1982 piece Third String Quartet ... child of Uranus, father of Zeus won First Prize at the Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards.[6] The Kronos Quartet commissioned and recorded his 1983 composition Morango ... Almost A Tango, which incorporates Argentinian stylistic elements and jazz rhythms.[8]
He received two Guggenheim Fellowships (1983, 1986),[9] two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and two Massachusetts Artists Foundation Fellowships.[6] In 1985, the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters awarded him the Charles Ives Fellowship.[6]
Recordings
[edit]- Thomas Oboe Lee String Quartets – performed by the Hawthorne String Quartet. Label: Koch International 3-7452-2-III[2]
- Thomas Oboe Lee The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards – performed by the Hirsch-Pinkas Piano Duo. Label: Arsis Audio CD 148
- Thomas Oboe Lee Six Concertos – performed by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Label: BMOP/sound 1025
References
[edit]- 1 2 "Biography". Thomas Oboe Lee. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
- 1 2 3 "Thomas Oboe Lee". Wise Music Classical. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Thomas Oboe Lee". Boston College, Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
- ↑ "Thomas Oboe Lee". Fromm Music Foundation. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
- 1 2 Page, Tim (October 6, 1985). "NUMIC NOTES; MODERNS IN RED SNEAKERS". The New York Times. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
- 1 2 3 4 "Thomas Oboe Lee". MacDowell. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
- ↑ Guerrieri, Matthew (September 17, 2007). "'Diaries' has some very fine passages". The Boston Globe.
- ↑ "Thomas Oboe Lee". Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
- ↑ "Thomas Oboe Lee". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
External links
[edit]| International | |
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| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
- 1945 births
- 20th-century classical composers
- 21st-century classical composers
- American male classical composers
- American classical composers
- University of Pittsburgh alumni
- New England Conservatory alumni
- Harvard University alumni
- Boston College faculty
- Living people
- Hong Kong emigrants to the United States
- 21st-century American composers
- Hong Kong emigrants to Brazil
- 20th-century American composers
- Pupils of Gunther Schuller
- 20th-century American male composers
- 21st-century American male composers