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2020 Commissioned Composer
SCOTT LEE
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. His music marries the traditional intricacy of classical form with the more body-centered and visceral language of contemporary popular music, creating a complex music of the present with broad appeal. The Berkshire Edge described the world premiere of his Slack Tide at 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 Symphony Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, the Portland Symphony Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, Symphony in C, and members of the Winston-Salem Symphony, as well as chamber groups such as the JACK Quartet, yMusic, the Da Capo Chamber Players, Deviant Septet, chatterbird, ShoutHouse, and pop artist Ben Folds. Recent commissioners include the Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, loadbang, and the Raleigh Civic Symphony.
Notable honors include a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, winner of the Symphony in C Young Composer’s Competition, and the Grand Prize in the 2015 PARMA Student Composer Competition. In 2020, Lee received fellowships from the Hermitage Artist Retreat and the Copland House’s CULTIVATE program. He was Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra’s Composer-in-Residence for the 2019-2020 season.
Lee is currently Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of Florida School of Music and has previously worked as a Lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and an Instructor at Duke University. Lee earned a PhD in Composition at Duke University and also holds degrees from the Peabody Institute and Vanderbilt University. Learn more at scottleemusic.net.
Title of composition: A certain slant of light, for solo cello
Note: A video of his piece will be placed here after it is performed for the second General Session.
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. His music marries the traditional intricacy of classical form with the more body-centered and visceral language of contemporary popular music, creating a complex music of the present with broad appeal. The Berkshire Edge described the world premiere of his Slack Tide at 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 Symphony Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, the Portland Symphony Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, Symphony in C, and members of the Winston-Salem Symphony, as well as chamber groups such as the JACK Quartet, yMusic, the Da Capo Chamber Players, Deviant Septet, chatterbird, ShoutHouse, and pop artist Ben Folds. Recent commissioners include the Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, loadbang, and the Raleigh Civic Symphony.
Notable honors include a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, winner of the Symphony in C Young Composer’s Competition, and the Grand Prize in the 2015 PARMA Student Composer Competition. In 2020, Lee received fellowships from the Hermitage Artist Retreat and the Copland House’s CULTIVATE program. He was Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra’s Composer-in-Residence for the 2019-2020 season.
Lee is currently Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of Florida School of Music and has previously worked as a Lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and an Instructor at Duke University. Lee earned a PhD in Composition at Duke University and also holds degrees from the Peabody Institute and Vanderbilt University. Learn more at scottleemusic.net.
Title of composition: A certain slant of light, for solo cello
Note: A video of his piece will be placed here after it is performed for the second General Session.
Emily Austin Smith, cellist
Based in Gainesville, Florida, cellist Emily Austin Smith maintains an active performing and teaching career. She has performed with the Gainesville Orchestra, the Fayetteville Symphony (NC), and the Duke New Music Ensemble, and as a substitute with the North Carolina Symphony and Carolina Ballet. Emily served as both cellist and Executive Director of WireTap New Music, a group she co-founded with her husband, composer Scott Lee. She teaches private lessons to students of all ages and abilities, and has participated in Suzuki teacher training with renowned pedagogue Tanya Carey.
Emily has attended the Spoleto Festival USA, Texas Music Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Encore School for Strings, Indiana University Summer String Academy, Kansas City String Quartet Program, and the Heartland Chamber Music Academy, where she appeared as a soloist with the chamber orchestra at the age of 14. While a student in Baltimore, Emily performed with the Occasional Symphony, Peabody Symphony Orchestra, and the Peabody Camerata, and was involved with Classical Revolution Baltimore and the Baltimore Symphony's OrchKids program.
Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, Emily completed her bachelor’s degrees in Cello Performance and English and her master’s degree in Cello Performance and Pedagogy at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where she studied with Alan Stepansky, former Associate Principal Cellist of the New York Philharmonic. During her time at the Peabody Institute and the Johns Hopkins University, Emily was the recipient of the B&O Women's Club Award in Performance and a member of the Phi Beta Kappa society.
Based in Gainesville, Florida, cellist Emily Austin Smith maintains an active performing and teaching career. She has performed with the Gainesville Orchestra, the Fayetteville Symphony (NC), and the Duke New Music Ensemble, and as a substitute with the North Carolina Symphony and Carolina Ballet. Emily served as both cellist and Executive Director of WireTap New Music, a group she co-founded with her husband, composer Scott Lee. She teaches private lessons to students of all ages and abilities, and has participated in Suzuki teacher training with renowned pedagogue Tanya Carey.
Emily has attended the Spoleto Festival USA, Texas Music Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Encore School for Strings, Indiana University Summer String Academy, Kansas City String Quartet Program, and the Heartland Chamber Music Academy, where she appeared as a soloist with the chamber orchestra at the age of 14. While a student in Baltimore, Emily performed with the Occasional Symphony, Peabody Symphony Orchestra, and the Peabody Camerata, and was involved with Classical Revolution Baltimore and the Baltimore Symphony's OrchKids program.
Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, Emily completed her bachelor’s degrees in Cello Performance and English and her master’s degree in Cello Performance and Pedagogy at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where she studied with Alan Stepansky, former Associate Principal Cellist of the New York Philharmonic. During her time at the Peabody Institute and the Johns Hopkins University, Emily was the recipient of the B&O Women's Club Award in Performance and a member of the Phi Beta Kappa society.