Biography:
Thomas Oboe Lee was born
in Beijing, China, in 1945. He lived in São Paulo,
Brazil, for six years before coming to the United States in 1966.
After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh (BA), he studied
composition at the New England Conservatory of Music (MM) and Harvard
University (PhD). He has been a member of the music faculty at
Boston
College since 1990.
To date Mr. Lee has composed over 150 works: eight symphonies, twelve
concerti for various solo instruments, twelve string quartets, a
100-minute two-act chamber opera "The Inman Diaries," choral works,
song cycles, and scores of chamber music.
His music has won many awards, among them the Rome Prize Fellowship,
two
Guggenheim Fellowships, two National Endowment for the Arts Composers
Fellowships, two Massachusetts Artists Fellowships, and First Prize at
the Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards for his String Quartet No. 3 ...
"child of Uranus, father of Zeus.”
Mr. Lee has received commissions from many organizations including
Amnesty International USA, the Fromm Music Foundation, the Koussevitzky
Music Foundation, the Kronos Quartet, the Manhattan String Quartet, the
Lydian String Quartet, the Hawthorne String Quartet, the Formosa
Quartet, the Artaria Quartet, Apple Hill Chamber Players, the American
Jazz Philharmonic, the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, the Civic Symphony
Orchestra of Boston, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, the
Boston Classical Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the
Omaha Symphony Orchestra, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
Ten of his early works originally published by Margun Music Inc. are
now available at G. Schirmer Inc./Associated Music Publishers. The rest
is self-published under the moniker, Departed Feathers Music - a BMI
affiliate.
Compact disk recordings of his music are available on Nonesuch, Koch
International Classics, Arsis Audio, MCA Classics, BMOP Sound and GM
Recordings. Mp3 downloads of his music are available @
iTunes, Amazon, bandcamp, Spotify, Napster, eMusic, Rhapsody, Zune, etc.
In 2010 he launched his very own iPhone app: TOLmtv. The
full version costs 99 cents. There
is also a free Android app under the name "Thomas Oboe Lee."
Complete TOL Music by
Category:
Orchestral:
Symphony No. 8 ½ … My Imaginary
London (2013) orchestra: 2222-2231-2perc-hp-strings
Serenade Rondo (2013) violin solo & chamber
orchestra: 0200-2000-strings
Symphony
No. 8 ... The City of Light (2011) chamber orchestra: 1 flute, 1 oboe,
1 English horn,
2 bassoons, 2 horns, timpani & strings
Concerto for Concert Band (2011) 3fl(picc)-2ob-2bsn-Ebcl-3cl-2basscl-4hn-3trpt-3trb-euph-tuba-timp-mar-2perc
Focus
on Grace ... Concerto for Jazz Saxophone (2010) alto sax in Eb & orchestra: 2222-4231-perc-drum
set-strings
Violin
Concerto ... for Irina (2009) violin solo & orchestra:
3222-4231-timp-hp-strings
Emerald Necklace ... The Story of Frederick Law Olmsted (2009) narrator
& chamber orchestra:
1111-2110-perc-strings
... bisbigliando ... (2009) harp solo & orchestra:
2222-2220-2perc-strings
Symphony
No. 7 ... Roman Holidays (2008, rev. 2013) orchestra:
2222-2231-timp-2perc-strings
Piano
Concerto ... Mozartiana (2007) piano solo & orchestra:
2222-2220-timp-strings
Persephone
and the Four Seasons (2006) oboe solo & orchestra:
2022-2200-2perc-hp-strings
Pluto ... Lord of the Underworld (2005) orchestra:
3333-4331-timp-2perc-hp-cel-strings
Concerto for Orchestra, opus 111 (2004) orchestra:
3232-4331-timp-2perc-strings
Symphony
No.
6 ... The Penobscot River (2004) SATB chorus & orchestra:
3222-4231-timp-2perc-hp-strings
Clarinet Concerto ... Sounds of the Islands (2003)
clarinet solo & orchestra: 2222 4330-3perc-pf-strings
Brocktonian Two-Step (2003) orchestra: 2222-4331-timp-2perc-strings
Symphony No. 5 ... Utopia Parkway (2003) orchestra:
2222-4331-timp-2perc-hp-strings
Mambo!!! (2003) orchestra: 2222-2220-2perc-pf-strings
Symphony No. 4 ... War and Peace (2001) soprano solo & orchestra:
3232-4331-timp-2perc-hp-pf-strings
Flauta
Carioca, opus 90 (2000) flute
solo, orchestra: 2222-2221-timp-2perc-strings
Symphony
No. 3 ... Portraits in Jazz (2000) orchestra:
3232-4331-timp-perc-hp-strings-jazz trio (piano-bass-drums)
Pastorale
(2000, rev. 2013) harp solo & chamber
orchestra: 2222-2200-strings
Jubilatus
(1999) orchestra: 3232-4331-timp-2perc-hp-strings
Forró
(1998) orchestra: 2222-2200-perc-strings
Symphony
No. 2 ... A Phantasmagorey
Ballet (1998) orchestra: 3232-4331-timp-2perc-hp-pf-strings
Eurydice
... A Tone Poem for Cello and Orchestra (1994-95) cello solo &
orchestra: picc2222-4231-timp-2perc-hp-strings
Sinfonietta,
opus 60 (1994) orchestra: picc2222-2220-timp-strings
Symphony
No. 1 ... Fallen Angels (1993, rev. 1995) orchestra:
2222-2211-timp-perc-hp-pf-strings
Les
Adieux à Dhu ... an Adagio (1992 - pièce
d'occasion) orchestra:
2222-4221-timp-hp-pf-strings
Jana
... An American Overture (1991, withdrawn) orchestra:
3223-4231-2perc-pf-strings
*Cavatina
Cavadini (1991, replaces 1984 version) concert band:
picc22Eb3altbs2-4-430323-3perctimp
Concertino
(1986) trumpet solo, timpani, string orchestra (65442, minimum)
*Harp
Concerto (1985) harp solo, chamber orchestra: 1120-2200-2 perc-strings
(66442, minimum)
Double
Concerto (1983/1984) 2 pianos & chamber orchestra: 1111-1110-2
perc-strings
*Phantasia
For Elvira Shatayev (1981) soprano solo & orchestra:
picc212-2121-hp-pf-2perc-strings
Vocal/Choral/Opera/Music
Theater:
Musings on a Flight from Boston to
Houston (2013)
soprano, piano [Text by Megan Stapleton.]
The
Lord's Prayer ... A Poem by R. Buckminster Fuller (2013) soprano,
piano [Text by R. Buckminster Fuller.]
Lilacs
... A Poem by Amy Lowell
(2012) soprano, piano [Text by Amy Lowell.]
God's
Grandeur (2012) SATB chorus and chamber
orchestra: flute, clarinet, 2 horns, harp & strings [P.D. poems by
Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J.]
Mayonnaise Dressing I (2012) soprano, piano [P.D. text from the
1896 Fannie Farmer Cook Book.]
Corso's Marriage (2011) baritone, piano [Poem by Gregory
Corso.]
O Magnum Mysterium (2011) a cappella all-male sextet
[Text:
P.D.]
Vincent
Millay Cycle (2010) soprano, piano [Poems by Edna St.
Vincent Millay.]
De
Profundis (2010) baritone, piano [P.D. text by
Oscar
Wilde.]
Part The
First ... THOU mastering me God! (2010) soprano,
piano [P.D. text by Gerard Manley Hopkins,
S.J.]
Variations
on a Mennonite Hymn (2009) 2 sopranos, violin [Text:
P.D.]
Septem
Verba Christi in Cruce (2008) a cappella SATB chorus
[Text: P.D.]
Walden,
opus 123 (2008) lyric tenor and octet: flute, clarinet, 2 violins,
viola, cello, double bass, piano
[P.D. text by Henry David Thoreau.]
The
Inman Diaries ... A Chamber Opera in Two Acts (2007) nine singers and
seven instruments: clarinet, harp, percussion, violin, viola, cello,
double bass
[Libretto by Jesse
J. Martin - based on a
play by Lorenzo DeStefano.]
Oscar
Wilde ... An Opera in Two Acts (Act One completed in 2005; Act Two,
work in
progress) [Libretto
by Paul Hodes.]
Mechthild von Magdeburg ... Minnelieder an got (2005) SATB chorus, harp
& string quintet [P.D. texts: Mechthild von
Magdeburg.]
The Flowers
of Terezín (2004) children's chorus: SSA, piano [Poems
by Walt Whitman, Mary Oliver, Tony Kushner & Matsuo Basho.]
Symphony
No. 6 ... The Penobscot River (2004) SATB
chorus & orchestra: 3222-4231-timp-2perc-hp-strings
[Text: P.D.]
Pater Noster (2003) baritone & string quartet [Text: P.D.]
Stabat Mater (2002) for SATB chorus and organ [Text: P.D.]
Christmas Cantata (2001) soprano solo, SATB chorus, 2 trumpets, 2
trombones, timpani, organ
[Public Domain text from "The New Oxford Book of Carols," edited by
Hugh Keyte
and Andrew Parrott.]
Hancock
Shaker Village (2001) mezzo-soprano and string quartet [Songs
and hymns from the Shaker
Village in Hancock, MA.]
Symphony No. 4 ... War and Peace (2001) soprano, orchestra:
3232-4331-timp-2perc-hp-pf-strings [Poems by Rupert Brook,
Wilfred Owen & Ivor Gurney.]
Morning Bliss (2000) mezzo-soprano, piano. [Poem by Peter
Papesch.]
Lux
Aeterna I, II, III, IV &
V ... In memoriam, Jane Marrinan,
1959-2000 (2000-02, rev. 2010) SATB chorus, a
cappella [Text: P.D.]
Summer
Lilies (2000) mezzo-soprano, piano. [Poem by Mary Oliver.]
Mass
for the Holy Year 2000 (1999-2000)
four soloists, SATB chorus, organ & orchestra:
2222-2221-timp-perc-hp-strings
[Latin text from the Ordinary of the Mass; poems by Elizabeth
Kirschner, Claude McKay, Edith Stein, and Thomas Merton]
Love
Songs (1998) mezzo-soprano, piano [Poems: A.
Gorges, E. Dickinson, C. Rossetti and
P. Booth.]
The
Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (1998) mezzo-soprano, organ
[Poem by Elizabeth Kirscher.]
Tantric
Psalms (1997, rev. 1999) for mezzo-soprano and string quartet [Text: P.D.]
Jack and the
blues (1997) soprano, piano [Poems by Jack Kerouac.]
Poema
de Natal (1992, rev. 1996) mezzo-soprano, Bb clarinet, trombone, piano,
percussion
[Poem by Vinicius de Moraes.]
That
Mountain (1991; rev. 1992) lyric baritone, flute, Bb clarinet, violin,
cello, piano, percussion
[Text by Henry David Thoreau.]
I
Never Saw Another Butterfly (1991) mezzo-soprano, Bb clarinet, piano
[Poems by the children interred at Terezín
Concentration Camp, 1942-44.]
Hymnbook
Resources Commission (1990) vocal quartet: SATB [Text: P.D.]
Unmasked ...
a chamber opera in one act (1989-90, withdrawn): S, MS, CT/A, T, BA,
BS, 1111-0000-perc-hpsd-11111 [Libretto by B. Kuehn.]
Apples
... Six "Dreams" by Richard Kenney (1987; rev. 1990) mezzo-soprano,
piano [Poems by Richard Kenney.]
The
Cockscomb (1981) female voice, violin, Bb trumpet, double bass, piano,
2
percussion
[Poems by Barbara Kuehn.]
*Phantasia
For Elvira Shatayev (1981) soprano, orchestra:
picc212-2121-hp-pf-2perc-strings
[Poem by Adrienne Rich.]
Photograph
1920 (1978; rev. 1982) soprano, Bb clarinet/bass clarinet, violin,
viola, cello
[Libretto by Gertrude Stein.]
String
Quartet:
String
Quartet No. 12 ... The Seasons after Franz Joseph Haydn (2010)
Jasmine
Variations (2009) for the Formosa Quartet
String
Quartet
No. 10 ... The Berkshires (2006) for the Hawthorne
String Quartet
The New England Transcendentalists: Emerson, Hawthorne, the Alcotts
& Thoreau (2003) for the Hawthorne String Quartet
ART: arias
& interludes ... Commedia dell'Arte for String Quartet (1996; rev.
1997) for the Artaria String Quartet
Seven
Jazz Pieces (1990-1991) for the Lydian String Quartet
String
Quartet on B-flat (1989/90; rev. 1993) for the Manhattan String Quartet
String
Quartet No. 5 (1987) for the Kronos Quartet; premiered by the Boston
Composers String Quartet
Morango
... Almost A Tango (1983) for the Kronos Quartet
*Third
String Quartet ... child of Uranus, father of Zeus (1982) for the
Kronos Quartet
Departed
Feathers (1980) for the Kronos Quartet
Aperture,
opus 1 (1974)
Chamber
Ensemble:
Clarinet Quintet (2013-14) clarinet, 2 violins, viola, cello
Piano Trio No. 2 ... Shosty-Bach Suite (2012) violin, cello, piano
Octet in D,
opus 144
(2012) Bb clarinet, bassoon, horn in F, string quartet, double bass
Tangata Manu (2009) piano, string quartet,
double bass, percussion
Piano
Quintet (2008) 2 violins, viola, cello, piano
Seven
Steps to Heaven (2002) 2 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos & double bass
I've
Got the Munchies (2001, rev. 2004) violin. viola, bass clar. in Bb,
vibraphone
Septet,
opus 77 ... "Variations on a Shaker tune" (1998) flute, Bb clarinet, F
Horn, violin, viola, cello, double bass
Yo
Picasso (1997) Bb clarinet, viola, cello, piano
La
Chimera Fantastica (1995, rev. 1996) violin, viola, cello
Piano
Trio No. 1 (1994, rev. 2000) violin, cello, piano
Four
In One + 3 (1992 - pièce
d'occasion) flute, oboe,
cello, trap set
Studio
54 (1992) flute, Bb clarinet,
violin, cello, piano
Santa
Cecilia ... a Horn Trio (1990,
replaces 1986 version - withdrawn) violin, F horn, marimba
numina
V ... a Williams fanfare (1988 - pièce
d'occasion) 2 oboes, english horn in F, 2
bassoons
Piano
Quintet ... Apple Strudel (1988) violin, viola, cello, contrabass, piano
Chôrinhos,
opus 38 (1987) flute, oboe, Bb clarinet, violin, cello, piano,
percussion
Harp
Trio (1986, withdrawn) flute, cello, harp
Piano
Sextet (1985) flute, oboe, Bb clarinet, bassoon, horn, piano
Six
At The Top Means... (1985) 3 saxophones, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones,
piano, double bass, drums, percussion
String
Trio (1985) violin, viola, cello
Louie
MCMLV (1985 - pièce
d'occasion) saxophone quartet
Waltzes,
opus 26 (1984, rev. 1994) flute, oboe, Bb clarinet, F horn, bassoon
Saxxologie
... A Sextet (1984) 6 saxophones:
2 soprano, 1 alto, 2 tenor, 1 baritone
*Hylidae
... The Tree Frogs (1984) violin, double bass, piano
*Double
"L" Triptych, opus 22 (1983) oboe solo, 4 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos,
1 double bass
*The
Gainsborough Five (1983) 2 trumpets, F horn, trombone, tuba
*Octopus
Wrecks (1979/1981) 2 trumpets, F horn, trombone, tuba, 3 double basses
Piece
For Viola (1976) saxophone quartet
*The
Mad Frog (1974) oboe, Bb bass clarinet, harp
Duo:
Grand Duo, opus 151 (2012) violin, piano
Toccata for Double Bass and Piano (2012)
Chorões Brasileiros, opus 120 (2007) alto
saxophone in Eb, piano
Waltzes, opus 101 (2002) flute/alto flute, harp
Voilà!!!
... Seven movements
for two violas (2001) or violin and viola
He
Loves And She Loves ... G. &
I. Gershwin (1999) arr. for two pianos
Eight Tarot Cards for Madam Rubio (1997, arr. by Nancy Zeltsman) two
marimbas
The
Visconti-Sforza
Tarot Cards ... Twenty-two salon pieces for two pianos, opus 66 (1996)
Cançôes
e sambinhas (1996) cello, piano
Tunesmith ... An American Beauty Pageant (1993)
violin, piano
Dark
Angels (1990; rev. 1994) viola, cello
Marimolintoo
(1989/90) violin, marimba
*Marimolin
(1986) violin, marimba
White
Pond ... Concord, Mass. (1982) oboe, piano
The
MacGuffin (1982) Bb soprano/Eb alto sax, percussion
Currie
Cabot (1980) viola, piano
Tennessee
Sourmash (1976) cello, piano
The
Sensuous Gargoyle (1975) violin,
piano
Solo:
Anne Dhu ... in memoriam (2012) solo piano
Partita for Solo Violin ... for Irina (2011)
Tokuno
Toccata (2010) piano solo
Prelúdios
... Comidas Típicas Brasileiras (2005) solo marimba
Chorale-Fantasy, opus 97a (2003) organ solo
Shepherd, Show Me How To Go (2003) organ solo
Twenty-nine Fireflies, Book V, Four Pieces [xxvi-xxix] ... For Sally
Pinkas and Evan Hirsch (2002) solo piano
Twenty-nine Fireflies, Book IV, Seven Pieces [xix-xxv] ... For
Ya-fei Chuang (2002) solo piano
Fantasia
for solo organ (2001)
Toccata,
Adagio & Fugue (2001) organ solo
Twenty-nine Fireflies, Book III, Seven Pieces [xii-xviii] ... For
Robert Levin (1998, rev. 2000) solo piano
Trinca de
Chôros (1996 - pièce
d'occasion) Bb clarinet solo in three movements
Chôros,
opus 61 (1994-95) violin or viola solo
numina I
... (1988; rev. 1994) solo trumpet
Twenty-nine Fireflies, Book II, Seven Pieces [v-xi] ... For
Kathryn Gleason (1982 - 1986) solo piano
After A
Lecture By John Cage (1978) solo piano
Libelle ... "dragonfly" (1977, withdrawn) solo harp
Twenty-nine Fireflies, Book I, Four Pieces [i-iv] ... For Julie
Cavadini (1977) solo piano
Music for
children or young adult performers:
Two-part
Invention for Becky's 14th (2012) violin, bassoon
A Double Bassoon Fantasy (2011) 2 bassoons
Becky's Bassoon
(2010 - pièce
d'occasion) bassoon solo
Bellaboola,
opus 108 (2004 - pièce
d'occasion) trumpet solo in Bb
Berkshire
Country Day School Fugue (1999 - pièce
d'occasion) string quartet
Waltzin'
Isabella (1999 - pièce
d'occasion) Bb trumpet, piano
Children's
Suite, opus 81 (1999 - pièce
d'occasion) violin, cello, piano; or violin, Bb
clarinet,
piano
Castor
& Pollux (1993, rev. 1996 - pièce
d'occasion) flute, oboe, Bb clarinet, piano
numina
II ... for Sarah (1989/90 - pièce
d'occasion) two recorders or flutes
* Early works published by G. Schirmer Inc./Associated Music Publishers.
All other
titles available through Departed Feathers Music, Inc.