Noël Lee

Noël Lee (b. Nanjing, China, December 25, 1924) is an American classical pianist and composer living in Paris, France.

He studied music in Lafayette, Indiana, then attended Harvard University, studying with Walter Piston, Irving Fine, and Tillman Merritt and was also a student at the Longy School of Music in the early 1940s.^[1] Following World War II, he traveled to Paris where he studied music with Nadia Boulanger and was a friend of Douglas Allanbrook. He has composed orchestral, chamber, piano, vocal, and film music. In addition, he has completed several unfinished piano works by Franz Schubert, and composed cadenzas for piano concertos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Lee has served as visiting professor at Brandeis University, Cornell University, and Dartmouth College.

He received numerous awards throughout his career, an Academy Award in Art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for his creative work in 1959;^[2] and from France, in 1998, the grade of Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and, in 1999, from the city of Paris, the Grand Prix de la Musique.

Recordings

Lee's first recordings were for the Valois label of Michel Bernstein.

As a pianist, he has toured on six continents and recorded 198 LPs and CDs since 1955, particularly of Schubert (including the complete sonatas), Debussy, Ravel, Charles Ives, Bartók, Stravinsky, Aaron Copland and Elliott Carter. Thirteen of these have received a Grand Prix du Disque.

Notes

1. ^ Dyer, Richard. "Longy-trained pianist Lee straight from French school". Boston Globe (November 10, 1998) p. C3
2. ^ American Academy of Arts and Letters: Year: 1959

Sources

• Google Books: International Who's Who in Classical Music 2003, 457 (Search: Lee, Noel)

External links

• Noël Lee's Homepage
• Noël Lee page from American Music Center site
• Noël Lee interview by Bruce Duffie

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Name	Lee, Noel
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Date of birth	December 25, 1924
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