James Lee III was born in 1975 in St. Joseph, Michigan, and began studying piano at what he considers a late age…12… when his father signed him up for lessons without his knowledge. He earned his Doctorate in Musical Arts from the University of Michigan, and includes among his composition teachers some prominent American composers: Michael Daugherty, William Bolcom, and Bright Sheng. He also studied composition as a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and as a Fulbright scholar researching music in Brazil.
Dr. Lee is a winner of the Charles Ives Scholarship, the Wladimir Lakond Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and has quickly become a prolific and highly-in-demand composer creating an average of five new major works every year.
His orchestral pieces have been commissioned and premiered by the National Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the New World Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, among many others. His work has been championed by conductors Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Stephane Deneve, and Michael Tilson Thomas.
And most recently (January 28, 2023) his newest work was unveiled by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra… a work with western Illinois connections. His Visions of Cahokia was inspired by a visit to a UNESCO World Heritage site just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, near present-day Collinsville, Illinois. Cahokia Mounds, the ancient ruins of an 11th century native American metropolis, is considered one of the most important archaeological finds in North America. Lee said he wanted to “celebrate this Mississippian cultural community at the height of its existence before the mysterious decline and abandonment of the city.”
James Lee III… Classically Black.