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Composer Performer

 

Charmaine Lee is a contemporary classical music composer and vocalist who has gained recognition for her innovative and experimental approach to music. Born in Singapore in 1991, Lee grew up in a family of musicians and was exposed to music from a young age. Her mother was a pianist and her father played the guitar, and they encouraged her to pursue music as a career. Lee began her musical training at the age of six, studying piano and violin. She later added the cello and voice to her repertoire, and by the time she was a teenager, she was performing regularly in Singapore's classical music scene. She also began composing her own music, drawing inspiration from a wide range of musical styles and genres. In 2010, Lee moved to the United States to attend the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. There, she studied composition with Michael Gandolfi and voice with Lucy Shelton. She also became involved in Boston's experimental music scene, collaborating with musicians from a variety of backgrounds and genres. Lee's early compositions were heavily influenced by her classical training, but she soon began to incorporate elements of jazz, rock, and electronic music into her work. Her music is characterized by its use of extended techniques, unconventional instrumentation, and improvisation. One of Lee's most notable works is "Pillow Talk," a piece for voice and electronics that she composed in 2014. The piece features Lee's distinctive vocal style, which combines traditional singing with extended techniques such as throat singing and vocal fry. The electronics component of the piece includes samples of Lee's own voice, which are manipulated and processed in real time. Another notable work by Lee is "Mouth Pieces," a series of compositions for solo voice that she began in 2016. The pieces explore the expressive potential of the voice, using a variety of extended techniques and unconventional vocal sounds. Lee has described the series as a way of "pushing the boundaries of what the voice can do." In addition to her work as a composer, Lee is also an accomplished performer. She has performed at venues and festivals around the world, including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in the UK, and the Singapore International Festival of Arts. Lee's music has been praised for its originality and its ability to challenge traditional notions of what classical music can be. She has been recognized with numerous awards and honors, including a 2019 grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and a 2020 residency at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Italy. As a composer and performer, Charmaine Lee is at the forefront of a new generation of musicians who are pushing the boundaries of classical music. Her innovative and experimental approach to music has earned her a reputation as one of the most exciting and original voices in contemporary classical music today.

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