About James Lee III

Admired for his "bright, pure music" (The Washington Post), with compositions described as "atmospheric and endlessly inventive" (Cincinnati Business Courier), James Lee III is a celebrated composer of works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, piano, voice, and chorus, performed widely throughout the United States, Europe, and Latin America. Raised in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Lee draws deep inspiration from Biblical texts, world history, and the international reach of his faith. Proficient in German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Hebrew alongside English, he brings a global perspective and a distinctive artistic voice shaped by history, faith, and culture.

Lee’s orchestral works have been commissioned and premiered by leading ensembles across the country, among them the National Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and New World Symphony, under conductors such as Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Juanjo Mena. Renowned soloists including clarinetist Anthony McGill, pianist Emanuel Ax, soprano Angela Brown, and pianists Jeffrey Biegel and Alexandra Dariescu have championed his music, alongside the Pacifica Quartet and Isidore String Quartet, among others. He served as composer-in-residence with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for the 2024-2025 season.

The 2026-2027 season brings four world premieres, including Exalted Aspirations by Rei Hotoda and the Las Vegas Philharmonic Orchestra, a Trombone Concerto by David Jackson with Kenneth Kiesler and the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Symphony No. 2 by the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra led by Matthew Kraemer, and a new work for tenor saxophone and piano premiered by Norie Sano in Nagoya, Japan. Additional season highlights include Humanity's Essential Gems performed by Anthony McGill and the Isidore Quartet at the University Musical Society, and Piano Concerto No. 2 "Concerto in A" performed by Jeffrey Biegel with Dirk Meyer and the Augusta Symphony Orchestra.

During the 2025-2026 season, nine of Lee's works received world premieres. Among the highlights were Connected Perceptions, commissioned by the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center and conductor Jonathon Heyward; Fanfare for Universal Hope by Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra; Concerto in A/Piano Concerto No. 2 by Jeffrey Biegel and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra; Phenomenal Queen: Coretta Scott King with soprano Angela Brown, Anthony Parnther and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra; the Abiding Legacy Saxophone Concerto by Tim McAllister, Tito Muñoz and the Nashville Symphony Orchestra; Symphony No. 2 "Resolute Souls" by Eric Jacobsen and the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra; Pitch In for the Colorado Children's Chorale and the Pacifica Quartet; and Sonic Tableaux by Amit Peled and the Mount Vernon Virtuosi. The season also brought the Dutch premiere of Amer'ican by conductor Sander Steepen and the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, and the European premiere of Visions of Cahokia, performed by Jonathon Heyward and the Chineke! Orchestra at the BBC Proms.

Over the arc of his career, Lee's orchestral works have been championed by some of the country's most distinguished orchestras, with performances by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. His career began when Beyond Rivers of Vision was premiered by Slatkin and the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center in 2006, followed by A Different Soldier's Tale with Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony in 2008. A defining milestone came when he won the Sphinx Commissioning Consortium for the 2011-2012 season, leading to Sukkot Through Orion's Nebula, which premiered with the New World Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas, and is now among his most performed works. The Baltimore Symphony also selected him for two landmark commissions: Chuphshah! Harriet's Drive to Canaan, inspired by the life of Harriet Tubman, and Thurgood's Rhapsody, written for the orchestra's centennial season. Celebrated soloists have since introduced Lee’s concertos on stages from Kalamazoo to Carnegie Hall, where A Double Standard was performed by Karen Slack and the Pacifica String Quartet.

Lee's compositions appear on numerous recordings, notably Voyages – Orchestral Music by James Lee III (RSO Records, 2022), recorded by the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra with Marin Alsop, and Alkebulan's Son: The Piano Works of James Lee III (Albany Records, 2014), recorded by pianist Rochelle Sennet, whose 2024 album Bach to Black: Suites for Piano, Vol. III also features his work. His music has been recorded by an array of distinguished collaborators, among them Anthony McGill and the Pacifica Quartet, whose American Stories (Cedille Records, 2022) received a GRAMMY® nomination, and cellist Inbal Segev, who included his work on 20 for 2020 (Avie Records, 2022). Further recordings by trombonist Kenneth Thompkins, cellist Rebecca Merblum, the Gibbs Street Duo, and pianist Josh Tatsuo Cullen round out a discography that spans orchestral, chamber, and choral music, such as Christmas at America's First Cathedral (Gothic Records, 2010) by Baltimore Choral Arts.

Among his career honors, Lee has received a Charles Ives Scholarship and the Wladimir Lakond Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2014, he was a Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Professor at the State University of Campinas in São Paulo, Brazil, where he composed, taught, and researched the music of 20th- and 21st-century Brazilian composers.

Born in St. Joseph, Michigan, Lee earned a bachelor's degree in piano performance from the University of Michigan before being encouraged by Latin GRAMMY® Award-winning composer Gabriela Lena Frank to pursue composition, where he went on to earn both master's and doctoral degrees. He served as a composition fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in 2002, studying with Osvaldo Golijov, Michael Gandolfi, Steven Mackey, Kaija Saariaho, and Stefan Asbury, and his composition teachers have included Michael Daugherty, William Bolcom, Bright Sheng, Betsy Jolas, Susan Botti, Erik Santos, and James Aikman. 

He currently lives with his wife Adnéia in Maryland, where he is a professor of theory and composition at Morgan State University. His passions beyond music include faith, travel, languages, and international soccer.