Noël Lee
Encyclopedia
Noël Lee 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. 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; 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.
.
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
.
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
He studied music in Lafayette, Indiana
Lafayette, Indiana
Lafayette is a city in and the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, northwest of Indianapolis. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 67,140. West Lafayette, on the other side of the Wabash River, is home to Purdue University, which has a large impact on...
, then attended Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, studying with Walter Piston
Walter Piston
Walter Hamor Piston Jr., , was an American composer of classical music, music theorist and professor of music at Harvard University whose students included Leroy Anderson, Leonard Bernstein, and Elliott Carter....
, Irving Fine
Irving Fine
Irving Gifford Fine was an American composer. Fine's work assimilated neo-classical, romantic and, later, serial elements...
, and Tillman Merritt and was also a student at the Longy School of Music
Longy School of Music
The Longy School of Music of Bard College is a conservatory located near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1915, it was one of the four independent degree-granting music schools in the Boston region along with the New England Conservatory, Berklee College of Music, and Boston...
in the early 1940s. Following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he traveled to Paris where he studied music with Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...
and was a friend of Douglas Allanbrook
Douglas Allanbrook
Douglas Allanbrook was an American composer, concert pianist and harpsichordist. He was associated with a group of mid-twentieth century Boston composers who were students of Nadia Boulanger.-Life and work:Allanbrook was born on April 1, 1921 and raised in Melrose, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston...
. He has composed orchestral, chamber, piano, vocal, and film music. In addition, he has completed several unfinished piano works by Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
, and composed cadenzas for piano concertos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
and Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
.
Lee has served as visiting professor at Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
, Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, and Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
.
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; and from France, in 1998, the grade of Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...
, 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 BernsteinMichel Bernstein
Michel Bernstein was a French musical producer and founder of several record labels.Bernstein's first contact with classical music was hearing the school music teacher play Beethoven on an out-of-tune piano at the age of 15, but thereafter he took a lively interest in music and recordings.-...
.
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
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
, Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
, Charles Ives
Charles Ives
Charles Edward Ives was an American modernist composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though Ives' music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, Ives came to be regarded as an "American Original"...
, Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
, Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
, Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
and Elliott Carter
Elliott Carter
Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
. Thirteen of these have received a Grand Prix du Disque
Grand Prix du Disque
The Grand Prix du Disque is the premier French award for musical recordings. The award was inaugurated by l'Académie Charles Cros in 1948 and offers prizes in various categories. The categories vary from year to year, and multiple awards are often made in any one category in the same year...
.
Sources
External links
- Noël Lee's Homepage
- Noël Lee page from American Music Center site
- Noël Lee interview by Bruce Duffie