Benjamin Lees (January 8, 1924 – May 31, 2010) was an American composer of classical music.
Early life
Lees was born
Benjamin George Lisniansky in
Harbin,
Manchuria, of
Russians-
Jewish descent.
Lees was still an infant when his family emigrated to the United States and settled in
California. He began piano lessons at 5 with Kiva Ihil Rodetsky of San Francisco.
When he was seven years old, he became an American citizen. In 1939, he moved with his family to Los Angeles and continued studies in piano with Marguerite Bitter. In his early teens, he studied harmony and theory and began to compose.
After serving in the United States military, Lees studied composition under Halsey Stevens, as well as with Ernst Kanitz and Ingolf Dahl,
The receipt of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1954 allowed him to live in Europe, realizing his goal of developing his individual style away from current fashions in the American art music scene and resulting in a number of mature and impressive works.[O'Loughlin, New Grove (2001), 14:467.]
Compositions
Lees rejected
atonalism and Americana in favor of classical structures. Niall O'Loughlin writes in
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "From an early interest in the bittersweet melodic style of
Sergei Prokofiev and the bizarre and surrealist aspects of Bartók's music, he progressed naturally under the unconventional guidance of Antheil."
Lees' music is rhythmically active, with frequently changing accents and meter even in his early works, and is known for its semitonal inflections in melody and harmony.
In 1954, the NBC Symphony Orchestra performed his Profiles for Orchestra on a national radio broadcast.[Fox, Margalit. (2010, June 7). Benjamin Lees, 86, Versatile Classical Composer. The New York Times, p A-19] In 1970, Medea in Corinth, his one-act musical drama, was given its premiere at the Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London,[Library of Congress data: ][ Review of Their Voices, DUX 1889 (2023) at MusicWeb International]
Lees received a Grammy nomination for Kalmar Nyckel in 2003, following release of a recording by the German orchestra Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz under Stephen Gunzenhauser.
Personal life
Lees married Luba Leatrice Banks in 1948. They had one daughter.
Lees donated his archive of manuscripts, sketches, scores, letters, photographs, articles, recordings and posters to
Yale University. Shortly before his death at age 86, he emailed that he was, "busy as fleas in a circus".
He died in Glen Cove, New York.
Awards and honors
-
1953: Fromm Foundation Award
-
1954: Guggenheim Fellowship
-
1955: Copley Medal
-
1956: Fulbright Fellowship
-
1958: UNESCO Award, Sir Arnold Bax Society Medal
-
1966: Guggenheim Fellowship
-
1985: Lancaster Symphony Orchestra's Composer's Award
-
2003: Grammy Nomination
-
National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity.
[ Delta Omicron ]
Discography
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Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra (RCA, conducted by Igor Buketoff)
-
Etudes for Piano & Orchestra (Albany)
-
Horn Concerto (New World)
-
Passacaglia for Orchestra (Delos)
-
Piano Concerto No 1 (Pierian)
-
Piano Concerto No. 2 (Albany)
-
Piano Sonata No. 4, Mirrors, Fantasy Variations (Albany)
-
Piano Trio No. 2: Silent Voices (Albany, DUX)
-
Prologue, Capriccio and Epilog (CRI)
-
String Quartets Nos. 1, 5 and 6 (Naxos)
-
Symphonies No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 (Albany)
-
Symphony No. 4: Memorial Candles (Naxos)
-
Violin Concerto (VoxBox, EPR)
-
Violin Sonata No. 2 (Polystone)
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Violin Works (Complete) (Albany)
-
O'Loughlin, Niall. "Lees, Benjamin". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001), 29 vols. .
Notes
External links
