ENJAMIN LEES
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  • Biography
    • The Introduction
    • Biography of the Man
    • Biographical Chronology
    • Awards
    • Feature Articles
    • Yale's Acquisition
  • Compositions
    • Written Works >
      • Chronological List of Works
      • A Capella
      • Chamber Works
      • Works for Concert Band
      • Orchestral Works
      • Works for Solo Instrument
      • Stage Works
      • Works for Solo Instrument & Orchestra
      • Song Cycles & Solo Vocal Works
      • Works for Voice(s) and Orchestra
    • Reviews >
      • Reviews - Piano Music 1947 - 2005 >
        • Review - Uncle Dave Lewis (AllMusic Blog)
        • Review - Shirley Ratcliffe
        • Review - Scott Morrison
      • Borealis
      • Concerto for Brass Choir and Orchestra
      • Concerto for Chamber Orchestra
      • Concerto for French Horn and Orchestra
      • Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra
      • Concerto for Violin & Orchestra - April 29, 2008
      • Concerto for Woodwind Quintet and Orchestra
      • Constellations for Orchestra
      • Divertimento-Burlesca
      • Echoes of Normandy
      • Etudes for Piano and Orchestra
      • Fantasy Variations for piano
      • Medea of Corinth
      • Mirrors
      • Oboe Concerto
      • Odyssey 1
      • Odyssey 2
      • Passacaglia for Orchestra
      • Piano Concerto No. 3
      • Piano Sonata No. 4
      • Piano Trio No. 2 "Silent Voices"
      • Scarlatti Portfolio
      • Six Ornamental Etudes
      • Sonata No. 3
      • String Quartet No.1
      • String Quartet No.2
      • String Quartet No. 4
      • String Quartet No. 5
      • String Quartet No. 6
      • Symphony No. 2
      • Symphony No. 3
      • Symphony No. 4 "Memorial Candles"
      • Symphony No. 5 "Kalmar Nyckel"
      • Variations for Piano and Orchestra
      • Violin Concerto
  • Media
    • Interviews >
      • Interview KPFA 94.1 FM
      • Interview KUSC fm 91.5
    • Documentary
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    • Video Clips #1
    • Video Clips #2
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Biographical Chronology ...


1924 ~ Born 8 January and grew up in San Francisco

1929 ~ Begins piano lessons with K.I. Rodetsky

1939 ~ Moves with family to Los Angeles, continues studies in piano with Marguerite Bitter. In early teens, studies
                             harmony and theory and begins to compose

1945 ~ Enters the University of Southern California in Los Angeles

1949 ~ Advanced studies in composition with George Antheil, continuing until 1954

1952 ~ Sonata for Two Pianos and String Quartet No 1 are presented by Composers' Forum at Columbia
                           University; in the following year, the two works are among those to win the first Fromm Music
                           Foundation Award

1954 ~ Has first significant performance of his work when the NBC Symphony performs Profiles for Orchestra,
                            conducted by Milton Katims for a nationwide broadcast. Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, the composer
                            leaves the U.S. to spend seven years traveling in Europe, eventually settling in a small village near Paris

1955 ~ Concert devoted to his chamber works at the Piccolo Teatro Duse in Genoa, including the premiere of Four
                          Songs of the Night (for soprano and chamber orchestra) Becomes first recipient of the Copley
                          Foundation Award

1956 ~Receives Fulbright Fellowship to Finland. Vienna Symphony premieres Piano Concerto No. 1 (1956)

1958 ~ Symphony No. 2 commissioned and performed by the Louisville Orchestra, Robert Whitney conducting.
                          Receives UNESCO Award for String Quartet No. 2 and the Sir Arnold Bax Society Medal in London, given for
                           the first time to a non-British composer. Composes Violin Concerto

1962~ Returns to the U.S. Appointed W. Alton Jones Professor of Composition at the Peabody Conservatory of Music
                           in Baltimore, where he remains until 1964. His Dramatic Cantata, Visions of Poets, commissioned by the
                           Seattle Symphony Orchestra for the inaugural concert of Seattle's new Opera House, receives its premiere with
                           Milton Katims conducting

1963~ Composes Piano Sonata No .4, a Ford Foundation commission premiered and later recorded
                          by Gary Graffman

1964-1965 ~ Joins the faculty of Queens College where he teaches until 1966. Composes Concerto for String
                                       Quartet and Orchestra (1964), a work that to date has had more than 80 performances by a total
                                       of over 35 orchestras

1966 ~Returns to the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, remaining there until 1968. Composes Piano
                          Concerto No. 2, given its first performance by Gary Graffman with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under
                          Erich Leinsdorf. Is awarded second Guggenheim Fellowship

1967 ~Invited to visit the Soviet Union as an official guest of the Union of Soviet Composers during May and June.
                         Composes an orchestral score, Silhouettes, for a movement of choreographer John Butler's
                         "Ballet of the Five Senses," which is broadcast nationwide on the NET public television network

1968-1969 ~Writes Symphony No. 3, commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra

1970 ~Medea in Corinth, a one-act musical drama, is given its premiere at the Purcell Room in London. Writes
                    Odyssey for English pianist John Ogden, who gives the work its first performance while on tour in the U.S. Begins
                    two years of teaching at the Manhattan School of Music

1972 ~ The Trumpet of the Swan, a work for children's concerts to a text by E.B. White, is commissioned and
                           performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra

1973 ~ Teaches for one year at the Juilliard School of Music, following which he devotes himself fuIl-time
                           to composition

1974 ~ Pianist James Dick commissions Etudes for piano and orchestra, serving as soloist for the work's premiere
                          with the Houston Symphony under Lawrence Foster

1976 ~ Three Bicentennial commissions receive their first performances. Passacaglia for Orchestra,
                           commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra, Variations for Piano and Orchestra, for the Music
                           Teachers National Association, performed by the Dallas Symphony under Louis Lane, with Eugene List as
                           soloist; and Concerto for Woodwind Quintet and Orchestra, a Detroit Symphony commission given its
                           premiere with Aldo Ceccato conducting

1977-1980
~Composes two song cycles, Staves (1977) and Paumanok (1979), composes the ballet score
                                       Scarlatti Portfolio for the San Francisco Ballet, in which he arranges and reharmonizes for orchestra
                                       several Scarlatti keyboard works. The Texas Little Symphony commissions Mobiles (1980), which is
                                       inspired hy the sculptures of Alexander Calder

1981-1982 ~ The Tokyo Quartet commissions String Quartet No. 3 (1982), giving the work its premiere at Carnegie
                                        Hall. Double Concerto (1982) is composed for the Clark-Schuldmann duo (cello and piano) to perform
                                        with American Symphony Orchestra, Sergiu Comissiona conducting. The duo had also commissioned
                                        Sonata for Cello and Piano (1981) and given its first performance

1983 ~ Continues series of works for concertante group with orchestra wth Concerto for Brass Choir and
                            Orchestra, a Dallas Symphony Orchestra commission. World premiere of Trio for Piano, Violin and
                            Cello at Williams College, Massachusetts, by the Williams Trio; commissioned by the Williams Trio

1984 ~ Lees composes Portrait of Rodin, each ot its seven sections based on a particular work by the French
                            sculptor. In 1987, James DePreist conducts the Oregon Symphony Orchestra in the work's premiere

1985 ~ The Dallas Symphony Orchestra commissions its second Lees work in three years: the monumental
                            Symphony No. 4 "Memorial Candles" for soprano and violin soloists with orchestra, vvritten to
                            commemorate the 40th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust. The three-movement, hour-long work is
                            given its premiere with soloists Zehava Gal and Pinchas Zukerman to widespread critical acclaim. Within a
                            year of the premiere it is performed by the Atlanta, Winnipeg, and Houston symphony orchestras, as well as
                            the London Philharmonia and the Israel PhiIharmonic Orchestra

1986 ~ The Kalmar Nyckel Commemorative Committee commissions Lees to create a work for the Delaware
                             Symphony Orchestra honoring the 350th anniversary of the founding of Wilmington, originally called
                             "New Sweden," the first Scandinavian settlement in the New World. The result is Symphony No 5, subtitled
                             "Kalmar Nyckel," for the boat in which the colonists traveled. Composes Odyssey II for solo piano,
                             subsequently given its first performance in New York at Merkin Hall, May 27, 1992, by Mirian Conti, piano

1989 ~ Composes String Quartet No. 4, commissioned hy Chamber Music America and given its premiere a year
                            later by the Aurora Quartet in San Francisco

1991 ~ The Pittsburgh Symphony commissions a concerto for its principal french horn player, William Caballero,
                           for premiere in 1992 with Lorin Maazel conducting

1992 ~Lees writes a new piano composition, Mirrors, given its world premiere May 17, 1992, at Orchestra Hall,
                           Chicago, by Ian Hobson, piano

1994~Echoes of Normandy, commissioned by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra to commemorate the 50th
                            anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy during World War II, for dramatic tenor, pre-recorded tape,
                            organ and orchestra. Premiered at the Myerson Center, Dallas, Texas, on June 15, 1994, with Edward Cook,
                            tenor; Paul Riedo, organ; and the Dallas Symphony conducted by Andrew Litton. Contours, commissioned
                            by the Sea Cliff Chamber Players, for ensemble. The work was premiered at Sea Cliff Theater, Sea Cliff,
                            Long Island, by the Sea Cliff Chamber Players

1996
~Celebration, commissioned by the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the orchestra's
                             50th anniversary. World premiere was October 10, 1996, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
                            Stephen Gunzenhauser, conductor

1997 ~ Lees is now commissioned by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo to write Constellations,
                            commemorating the 700th anniversary of the Grimaldi Dynasty. The world premiere takes place in
                            Monte Carlo July 17, 1997, with the orchestra conducted by James DePreist

1998 ~ The composer now receives a second commission from the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo,
                             this time for a Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra, to be premiered in Monte Carlo December 1999

2010 ~ It is with profound sadness the Lees Family announces the passing of the Great Composer
                                                                                     Benjamin Lees,  May 31, 2010


  • Home
  • Biography
    • The Introduction
    • Biography of the Man
    • Biographical Chronology
    • Awards
    • Feature Articles
    • Yale's Acquisition
  • Compositions
    • Written Works >
      • Chronological List of Works
      • A Capella
      • Chamber Works
      • Works for Concert Band
      • Orchestral Works
      • Works for Solo Instrument
      • Stage Works
      • Works for Solo Instrument & Orchestra
      • Song Cycles & Solo Vocal Works
      • Works for Voice(s) and Orchestra
    • Reviews >
      • Reviews - Piano Music 1947 - 2005 >
        • Review - Uncle Dave Lewis (AllMusic Blog)
        • Review - Shirley Ratcliffe
        • Review - Scott Morrison
      • Borealis
      • Concerto for Brass Choir and Orchestra
      • Concerto for Chamber Orchestra
      • Concerto for French Horn and Orchestra
      • Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra
      • Concerto for Violin & Orchestra - April 29, 2008
      • Concerto for Woodwind Quintet and Orchestra
      • Constellations for Orchestra
      • Divertimento-Burlesca
      • Echoes of Normandy
      • Etudes for Piano and Orchestra
      • Fantasy Variations for piano
      • Medea of Corinth
      • Mirrors
      • Oboe Concerto
      • Odyssey 1
      • Odyssey 2
      • Passacaglia for Orchestra
      • Piano Concerto No. 3
      • Piano Sonata No. 4
      • Piano Trio No. 2 "Silent Voices"
      • Scarlatti Portfolio
      • Six Ornamental Etudes
      • Sonata No. 3
      • String Quartet No.1
      • String Quartet No.2
      • String Quartet No. 4
      • String Quartet No. 5
      • String Quartet No. 6
      • Symphony No. 2
      • Symphony No. 3
      • Symphony No. 4 "Memorial Candles"
      • Symphony No. 5 "Kalmar Nyckel"
      • Variations for Piano and Orchestra
      • Violin Concerto
  • Media
    • Interviews >
      • Interview KPFA 94.1 FM
      • Interview KUSC fm 91.5
    • Documentary
    • Photos
    • Audio
    • Video Clips #1
    • Video Clips #2
  • Recordings
  • Contact