Noël Lee, American composer and pianist, received his early musical education in Lafayette, Indiana. After studying at Harvard University (with Walter Piston, Irving Fine, and Tillman Merritt)--interrupted by three years of military service during World War II--and at the New England Conservatory of Music, went to Paris to continue his education under the guidance of Nadia Boulanger. She has written: "Noël Lee is one of the finest musicians I have met. Composer with a real personality, he has refinement and strength, an acute perception of the resources of his instrument, a sense of the hierarchy of values, and a total understanding of the works."
Among the many awards he received in early years (the Lili Boulanger Composition Prize and a prize in the Young Composers' Contest of the Louisville Orchestra), of particular interest is the one from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1959), in recognition of his creative work in general. In recent years the Cultural Affairs Ministry in France and the French National Radio have given him three important commissions, an unusual distinction for a composer not of French nationality. In 1986, a second prize in the Arthur Honegger Composition Contest for a set of Piano Etudes, and in 1991, the Charles Oulmont Prize were awarded him by the Fondation de France. Aaron Copland has written of Lee: "Here is a composer who writes his music with his eyes wide open, and with a kind of cool intensity that defines his personality.....Music to him is a natural language, a language he uses without strain or mannerism. .......no matter how complex the textures may be, the musical discourse is always lucid and reasoned"
Lee's activities as a pianist have led him on tour on six continents. In Europe, he has recorded 185 LPs and CDs since 1956, of which 13 have received a Grand Prix de Disque. This recorded repertory, from J.S. Bach to Jean Barraqué, comprises the first complete recording of all the Schubert Piano Sonatas, (including several unfinished ones which Lee has completed), the entire piano literature of Debussy and Ravel, and numerous works of twentieth century giants: Charles Ives, Charles Griffes, Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, and Elliott Carter. His large repertoire, which includes 30 Concerti, embraces a sizable portion of 19th and 20th century chamber music and vocal literature. More than 20 recordings are devoted to four-hand and two-piano compositions of various periods in collaboration with the French pianist Christian Ivaldi, and many are devoted to American and to 20th century music, and 6 discx of violin and piano works with Gérard Poulet.
In the US, Lee has bee visiting professor at Brandeis, Cornell Univeristy, and Dartmouth College. In Europe, he is frequently called upone for workshops in piano, chamber music, vocal literature, and collaborates extensively with publishing houses for new editions of French piano, four-hand, and two-piano music.
Additional information on publications by Noël Lee may
be obtained by writing
4 Villa Laugier
75017 Paris
FRANCE