Described as “an astoundingly virtuosic guitar player... and far more importantly… a thoughtful and original composer,” (Jayson Greene, eMusic) Andrew McKenna Lee’s music has been commissioned and programmed by some of the world’s leading ensembles and organizations, including the Brentano String Quartet, eighth blackbird, Kroumata, Concert Artists Guild, the American Composers Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. As a performer, Mr. Lee has given solo concerts featuring his original compositions for guitar in some of the country’s most esteemed venues, including New York’s Symphony Space, Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), the Annenberg Center for the Arts in Philadelphia, and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
An artist who is both adept and comfortable in blending seemingly disparate styles, Lee has also performed with rock legends Billy Idol and former Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones in his own large ensemble arrangements of songs by David Bowie, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. This stylistic fluency has found its way into several of his own works, including Sunrise from the Bottom of the Sea (an homage to Jimi Hendrix) and hisScordatura Suite, which prompted one music writer to comment, “I’m not sure if he was going for the rock/classical synthesis, but if he was, it’s the best effort of its kind I have yet heard.” (Soundboard).
To date, Lee has released two commercial recordings. His debut release on New Amsterdam Records, Gravity and Air, was named one of the year’s “Top Ten Best Classical Albums” of 2009 in Time Out Chicago. Released the same year, Solar/Electric also met with critical praise, most notably from composer Steve Reich, who claimed Lee’s realization of his work Electric Counterpoint, ”a magnificent performance beautifully recorded.”Currently, Lee is at work on a large-scale song project that draws freely from a diverse array of influences ranging from classic rock and psychedelia to minimalism and polyphonic Renaissance vocal music. Scored for two electric guitars, electric bass, drums, mallet percussion, string quartet, and three female vocalists, the project is scheduled for release on New Amsterdam Records in 2013-2014.
Other recent works include Curio (2011), commissioned by the Italian guitarist Sergio Sorrentino for the 20th International Guitar Festival of Lagonegro, Italy; Obstinate Snakes! (2010) for the Anubis Saxophone Quartet; and Crescive Variations (2010) for Austin Symphony concertmaster Jessica Mathaes. Recent concert engagements as a soloist include performances as part of New York’s SONiC Festival (2011), as well as the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America Convention (2012).
Mr. Lee holds degrees in composition from Carnegie Mellon University (BFA, 1997), the Manhattan School of Music (MM 2000), and Princeton University, where his primary teachers were Leonardo Balada, Richard Danielpour, and Steven Mackey. Additionally, he has studied guitar with James Ferla, David Leisner, and Laura Oltman, and in masterclasses with Manuel Barrueco, Carlos Barbosa-Lima, and Alvaro Pierri. He has received awards and fellowships from ASCAP, the New York Youth Symphony, Princeton University (2003-2008), the South Carolina Arts Council, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the Hermitage Artist Retreat, the American Music Center, Meet the Composer, and the Aaron Copland Fund for Music. He is also a member of the New York based composers collective, Random Access Music.
Web: http://www.andrewmckennalee.com/bio_cv/bio.html (2013)