Admired for his “bright, pure music” (The Washington Post), with music described as “atmospheric and endlessly inventive” (Cincinnati Business Courier), James Lee III is the composer of more than 80 works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, piano, vocals, choral ensemble and more. During the 2024-2025 season, he will be composer-in-residence with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Born in St. Joseph, Michigan, Lee began his musical studies as a piano student. After earning a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the University of Michigan, he was advised by a friend – Latin GRAMMY Award-winning composer Gabriela Lena Frank – to enter the university’s Master of Music program in composition, where he earned both master’s and doctoral degrees in composition. His career began in earnest when his dissertation work Beyond Rivers of Vision (2005) was premiered by Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in October 2006. A second early work, A Different Soldier’s Tale, was premiered by Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in December 2008. Lee currently lives with his wife Adnéia in Maryland, where he is a professor of theory and composition at Morgan State University. His passions beyond music include his faith, travel, languages and international soccer.