Scott Lee
Composition
Praised as “colorful” and “engaging” (The Philadelphia Inquirer), Scott Lee’s music often takes inspiration from popular genres, exploring odd-meter grooves and interlocking hockets while featuring pointillistic orchestration and extended performance techniques. He marries the traditional intricacy of classical form with the more body-centered and visceral language of popular music, crafting compositions that are both “rigorously contemporary and fully accessible” (AllMusic). The Berkshire Edge described the world premiere of his Slack Tide, commissioned by the Tanglewood Music Center, as having “moments both of calm and maximum tension...we’ve never heard anything like it.”
Lee has worked with leading orchestras including the Baltimore, North Carolina, Bozeman, and Portland Symphony Orchestras, Symphony in C, the Moravian Philharmonic, Raleigh Civic Symphony, the Occasional Symphony, the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, and members of the Winston-Salem Symphony. His music has also been performed by prominent chamber groups such as the JACK Quartet, yMusic, the Da Capo Chamber Players, Icarus Quartet, Deviant Septet, chatterbird, ShoutHouse, Verdant Vibes, and pop artist Ben Folds. Recent commissioners include the Barlow Endowment, Bozeman Symphony, Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, Florida State Music Teachers Association, loadbang, and the Raleigh Civic Symphony.
Notable performances include the world premiere of Vicious Circles by Symphony in C and a Anadyr performed by the American Composers Orchestra under George Manahan as part of the 27th Annual Underwood New Music Readings in New York City. Three pieces by Lee – Drip Study, Tourbillion, and Car Alarm Strut – were premiered at a Tanglewood Music Center concert led by Michael Gandolfi with coaching by composer Osvaldo Golijov.
Active as a music educator, Lee is currently Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of Florida School of Music. He previously worked as a Lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and an Instructor at Duke University. He holds a PhD in Composition from Duke University and additional degrees from the Peabody Institute and Vanderbilt University.