Since 1979, Hope Lee has been studying Chinese music, medieval and classical poetry, in particular the ideology, philosophy and notation of qin (Chinese 7-string zither) music. The knowledge absorbed and material collected have integrated and become an important part of her creative voice and to-date, nine pieces have been completed, with each representing a particular time in Chinese history which in turn, reflects our own existence.
Lee studied music at the McGill University in Montréal and at the Staatlich Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, Germany as a recipient of a DAAD scholarship and a Canada Council Grant. Her main teachers in composition are Bengt Hambraeus, Brian Cherney and Klaus Huber. During this period, she also attended the Darmstadt Ferienkurse für Neue Musik and the Durham 1979 Oriental Music Festival in England. Both events were important in shaping her musical development. Between 1987 and 1990, she carried out studies on Chinese traditional music and poetry, as well as computer music in Berkeley, California. Hope Lee has been invited to the first International Woman Composers Conference in Berlin, to the Künsterlerhaus Boswil in Switzerland, Die Hoege in Germany as artist-in-residence and as visiting composition instructor at Queen’s University and composer-in-residence at University of Calgary.
Lee’s work has been presented at various international music festivals such as Music Today in Tokyo, World Music Days of the ISCM, Aspekte Salzburg Festival, Hong Kong Festival, International Computer Music Conference, the Scotia Festival of Music, Trieste Contemporanea, Italy and International Tribune of Composers in Belgrade. Her works have won many awards, including first prize for Nabripamo (piano, marimba, 1982) in the Scotia Festival of Music Boulez Year Composers' Competition in 1991, an Honourable Mention in the International Composers Competition at Budapest, Hungary in 1989 for ...I, Laika....(flute, cello, piano, 1988-89). Other principal works of Lee are Ballade of Endless Woe (vocal quartet, percussion ensemble, 1978-79), Onomatopoeia (chamber orchestra with children's choir, l979-81), Melboac (harpsichord, 1983), one thousand curves ten thousand colours (1997), a multimedia presentation integrating live acoustic and electroacoustic music with computer-generated images, lights and dance, with the theme of artist's role in the society, and Voices in Time cycle (1989-present). The complete catalogue of Lee's works is published by Furore-Verlag in Germany.
Parting at Yang Kuan (excerpt) - MP3 link Hope Lee (2004), Canada Council Commission Recorded in May 2006 at the Norman Rothstein Theatre Self Produced Multimedia Concert "Parting at Yang Kuan"
zheng performed by previous member Gelina Jiang
Parting at Yang Kuan, the eighth work in Lee’s “Voices in Time” cycle, reflects on the Ming Dynasty, the last dynasty in China ruled by Chinese, a time of rapid changes of rulers, internal rebellion, wars at the frontiers, naval expeditions, Manchus invasion and conquest. This piece shares the 'farewell' mood and gesture of the famous phrase from a poem, “Outside Yang Kuan to the West, you will not find any familiar faces”. Although Yang Kuan is historically referred as a military path, the composer sees it as gate where people depart their earthy existence. Musically, it re-examines many musical ideas and materials of the seven previous works and renews in a new sound world.