Hope Lee (born 14 January 1953) is a Canadian musician, music educator and composer of Chinese birth.
Hope Lee was born in Taipei, Taiwan, of parents from mainland China, and began studying piano at the age of five. In 1967 she moved to Canada, intending to study medicine, but instead she decided on music and studied piano with Patrick Li at the Royal Conservatory of Music. She continued her studies at McGill University with Rose Goldblatt and Louis-Philippe Pelletier for piano, with Mariano Etkin, Alcides Lanza, and Bengt Hambraeus for electronic music, and with Hambraeus, John Rea, and Brian Cherney for composition. Later she studied with Klaus Huber at the Staatliche Hochschule fur Musik in Freiburg, West Germany, and computer music and Chinese traditional music and poetry in Berkeley, California.
Lee became a Canadian citizen in 1974, and married composer David Eagle in 1980. She participates in festivals, conferences and courses internationally, including Darmstadt in 1989. She has researched ancient Chinese poetry and the history and theory of Chinese music and learned to play qin. She has served as guest composer and composer-in-residence at different venues and as guest lecturer at universities including Queen's University, the University of Calgary and the Wuhan Conservatory of Music in China.
Honours and awards
First prize in PROCAN's Young Composers' Contest, 1979
Two CAPAC William St Clair Low Awards, 1979, 1982
Music Today Award, Japan, 1985
First prize in the Scotia Festival of Music Boulez Year Composers' Competition, 1991
Selected work include:
Ballade of Endless Woe. 1978-9. Vocal quartet, percussion ensemble; version with piano, 1987
Dindle. 1979. Piano
Onomatopoeia. 1979-81. Comprising Chan Chan, chamber string orchestra; Jia Yuan children's choir, 15 instruments; Tiao Tiao, chamber orchestra
Nabripamo. 1982. Piano, marimba
Nohr. 1983. Brass sextet
Melboac. 1983. Harpsichord
In a Mirror of Light. 1988. Early-music ensemble, synthesizer/sampler, tape
Flake Upon Flake Upon ... 1989. Pieces for young pianists
...I, Laika.... 1988-9. flute, cello, piano
entends, entends le passe qui marche ... 1992. Piano, tape
Tangram. 1992. Bass clarinet, harpsichord, tape. Contemporary Anthology of Music by Women (1997)
Voices in Time. 1992-4. Flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, trumpet, horn, harp, percussion, accordion, strings, soundfiles, live electronics (version for chamber orchestra, accordion, soundfiles, live electronics, 1995)
March 3rd, 1911. 1993. Bass clarinet, piano with or without tape
Shadow of an Uncounted Journey. 1997-8. Soprano, violin, clarinet / bass clarinet, piano, sound files, images
Fei Yang 2001. String quartet, free bass accordion
Four Winds from Heaven (poems in English and Chinese by Robert Louis Stevenson; Amy Lowell; Will. H. Ogilvie; Hope Lee; Bible). 2005. Women's choir
This Song of Mine. 2007. Soprano
Secret of the Seven Stars. 2009-11. strings, free bass accordion, percussion
Lee has published professional articles including:
"A Time for Soul-Searching: A Composer Considers the Last ISCM World Music Days Festival," Musicanada 61, Spring/Summer 1988
"Eine Tur, durch die wir gehen mussen," Positionen 63, May 2005
Hope K. W. Lee: Musical Portrait: CAPAC Musical Portrait, Series 5/No. 21. 1986. AR731
Melboac: New Music for Harpsichord from Canada and the Netherlands. 1988. Vivienne Spiteri, harpsichord. SNE-542-CD
... I, Laika ... (excerpt). 1993. New Works Calgary Ensemble. Canadian Music Centre (Calgary) CD 359
... I, Laika ... and entends, entends le passe qui marche ...: e-motion: Acoustic/Electroacoustic Works [with David Eagle]. 1994. New Works Calgary Ensemble, Colleen Athparia piano. New Concert Discs NCD-0294
entends, entends le passe qui marche ...: Polaris. 1996. Colleen Athparia piano. UNICAL UC CD9601
Tangram. 1997. Contemporary Anthology of Music by Women, Bloomington, Indiana University Press
Voices in Time (with Tim Brady). 1999. Musicworks 75, Fall 1999
Flake Upon Flake Upon... (2 pieces). 2000. Elaine Keillor piano. Studea Musica, BR1336
flashing into the dark: Namaste Suite. 2003. Aurait [Italy], Mnemes HCD/102
Duo Solista (excerpt). 2005. Land's End Chamber Music Society, DMP-0182
Fei Yang and Voices in Time: renew'd at ev'ry glance. 2008. Centrediscs CERE 13708
Tangram: Ladder of Escape 10. 2008. Attacca Records 28120
Rubbing Stone and Days Beyond: Rubbing Stone. 2009. Centrediscs CERE 14909
In the Beginning Was the End: jalsaghar. 2010. Centrediscs
