1924 Born 8 January and grew up in San Francisco
1929 Begins piano lessons with K.I. Rodetsky
1939 Moves with family to Los Angeles, continues studies in piano with Marguerite Bitter. In early teens, studies harmony and theory and begins to compose
1945 Enters the University of Southern California in Los Angeles
1949 Advanced studies in composition with George Antheil, continuing until 1954
1952 Sonata for Two Pianos and String Quartet No 1 are presented by Composers' Forum at Columbia University; in the following year, the two works are among those to win the first Fromm Music Foundation Award
1954 Has first significant performance of his work when the NBC Symphony performs Profiles for Orchestra, conducted by Milton Katims for a nationwide broadcast. Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, the composer leaves the U.S. to spend seven years traveling in Europe, eventually settling in a small village near Paris
1955 Concert devoted to his chamber works at the Piccolo Teatro Duse in Genoa, including the premiere of Four Songs of the Night (for soprano and chamber orchestra) Becomes first recipient of the Copley Foundation Award
1956 Receives Fulbright Fellowship to Finland. Vienna Symphony premieres Piano Concerto No. 1 (1956)
1958 Symphony No. 2 commissioned and performed by the Louisville Orchestra, Robert Whitney conducting. Receives UNESCO Award for String Quartet No. 2 and the Sir Arnold Bax Society Medal in London, given for the first time to a non-British composer. Composes Violin Concerto
1962 Returns to the U.S. Appointed W. Alton Jones Professor of Composition at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, where he remains until 1964. His Dramatic Cantata, Visions of Poets, commissioned by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra for the inaugural concert of Seattle's new Opera House, receives its premiere with Milton Katims conducting
1963 Composes Piano Sonata No .4, a Ford Foundation commission premiered and later recorded by Gary Graffman
1964-1965 Joins the faculty of Queens College where he teaches until 1966. Composes Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra (1964), a work that to date has had more than 80 performances by a total of over 35 orchestras
1966 Returns to the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, remaining there until 1968. Composes Piano Concerto No. 2, given its first performance by Gary Graffman with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Erich Leinsdorf. Is awarded second Guggenheim Fellowship
1967 Invited to visit the Soviet Union as an official guest of the Union of Soviet Composers during May and June. Composes an orchestral score, Silhouettes, for a movement of choreographer John Butler's "Ballet of the Five Senses," which is broadcast nationwide on the NET public television network
1968-1969 Writes Symphony No. 3, commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
1970 Medea in Corinth, a one-act musical drama, is given its premiere at the Purcell Room in London. Writes Odyssey for English pianist John Ogden, who gives the work its first performance while on tour in the U.S. Begins two years of teaching at the Manhattan School of Music
1972 The Trumpet of the Swan, a work for children's concerts to a text by E.B. White, is commissioned and performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra
1973 Teaches for one year at the Juilliard School of Music, following which he devotes himself fuIl-time to composition
1974 Pianist James Dick commissions Etudes for piano and orchestra, serving as soloist for the work's premiere with the Houston Symphony under Lawrence Foster
1976 Three Bicentennial commissions receive their first performances. Passacaglia for Orchestra, commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra, Variations for Piano and Orchestra, for the Music Teachers National Association, performed by the Dallas Symphony under Louis Lane, with Eugene List as soloist; and Concerto for Woodwind Quintet and Orchestra, a Detroit Symphony commission given its premiere with Aldo Ceccato conducting
1977-1980 Composes two song cycles, Staves (1977) and Paumanok (1979), composes the ballet score Scarlatti Portfolio for the San Francisco Ballet, in which he arranges and reharmonizes for orchestra several Scarlatti keyboard works. The Texas Little Symphony commissions Mobiles (1980), which is inspired hy the sculptures of Alexander Calder
1981-1982 The Tokyo Quartet commissions String Quartet No. 3 (1982), giving the work its premiere at Carnegie Hall. Double Concerto (1982) is composed for the Clark-Schuldmann duo (cello and piano) to perform with American Symphony Orchestra, Sergiu Comissiona conducting. The duo had also commissioned Sonata for Cello and Piano (1981) and given its first performance
1983 Continues series of works for concertante group with orchestra wth Concerto for Brass Choir and Orchestra, a Dallas Symphony Orchestra commission. World premiere of Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello at Williams College, Massachusetts, by the Williams Trio; commissioned by the Williams Trio
1984 Lees composes Portrait of Rodin, each ot its seven sections based on a particular work by the French sculptor. In 1987, James DePreist conducts the Oregon Symphony Orchestra in the work's premiere
1985 The Dallas Symphony Orchestra commissions its second Lees work in three years: the monumental Symphony No. 4 "Memorial Candles" for soprano and violin soloists with orchestra, vvritten to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust. The three-movement, hour-long work is given its premiere with soloists Zehava Gal and Pinchas Zukerman to widespread critical acclaim. Within a year of the premiere it is performed by the Atlanta, Winnipeg, and Houston symphony orchestras, as well as the London Philharmonia and the Israel PhiIharmonic Orchestra
1986 The Kalmar Nyckel Commemorative Committee commissions Lees to create a work for the Delaware Symphony Orchestra honoring the 350th anniversary of the founding of Wilmington, originally called "New Sweden," the first Scandinavian settlement in the New World. The result is Symphony No 5, subtitled "Kalmar Nyckel," for the boat in which the colonists traveled. Composes Odyssey II for solo piano, subsequently given its first performance in New York at Merkin Hall, May 27, 1992, by Mirian Conti, piano
1989 Composes String Quartet No. 4, commissioned hy Chamber Music America and given its premiere a year later by the Aurora Quartet in San Francisco
1991 The Pittsburgh Symphony commissions a concerto for its principal french horn player, William Caballero, for premiere in 1992 with Lorin Maazel conducting
1992 Lees writes a new piano composition, Mirrors, given its world premiere May 17, 1992, at Orchestra Hall, Chicago, by Ian Hobson, piano
1994 Echoes of Normandy, commissioned by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy during World War II, for dramatic tenor, pre-recorded tape, organ and orchestra. Premiered at the Myerson Center, Dallas, Texas, on June 15, 1994, with Edward Cook, tenor; Paul Riedo, organ; and the Dallas Symphony conducted by Andrew Litton. Contours, commissioned by the Sea Cliff Chamber Players, for ensemble. The work was premiered at Sea Cliff Theater, Sea Cliff, Long Island, by the Sea Cliff Chamber Players.
1996 Celebration, commissioned by the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the orchestra's 50th anniversary. World premiere was October 10, 1996, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Stephen Gunzenhauser, conductor
1997 Lees is now commissioned by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo to write Constellations, commemorating the 700th anniversary of the Grimaldi Dynasty. The world premiere takes place in Monte Carlo July 17, 1997, with the orchestra conducted by James DePreist
1998 The composer now receives a second commission from the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, this time for a Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra, to be premiered in Monte Carlo December 1999
1998. Piano Trio #2 "Silent Voices", commissioned by the U.S.Holocaust Memorial Museum is premiered May 31st in Washington, D.C. The composer accepts a commission from the USHMM to write a work for unaccompanied cello.
1999.Concerto For Percussion and Orchestra premiered December 5,1999 by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, Hubert Soudant conducting.
2000.East Coast premiere of Constellations performed November 2nd by the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington D.C. under Leonard Slatkin.
2001. World premiere of Night Spectres, for unaccompanied cello, performed at the U.S.Holocaust Museum May 21st by Stephen Honigberg. The National Federation of Music Clubs commissions the composer to write a work for two pianos for its Ellis Competition for duo pianists. At the same time, Pacific Serenades commissions Lees to compose a piece for flute, clarinet, cello and piano for its 2004 season.
2002. The String Quartet #5, commissioned by the Cypress String Quartet is given its world premiere in San Francisco on March 3rd, and its Kennedy Center premiere October 22nd in Washington D.C.
Benjamin Lees' musical output has followed a consistent path over four decades, since his earliest orchestra scores of the 1950s. Classical musical structures form the basis of his works, expertly crafted and honed into his own language, always tonal, but exploring the full range of tonality through development of subject matter. Inversions, stretti, canons, fugues, melodic and harmonic exploitation of intervals; all of these are ordnance in the Lees armory but Lees the technician is always the master, not the servant of his art. And it is as his art has grown that he has, as it were, "slipped the surly bonds of earth," each new work representing a graceful display of compositional flight in all its aspects.
Lees' chosen instrument has been the orchestra, with five symphonies and numerous concertante works making up the core of his output. The Fourth Symphony, "Memorial Candles" (1985), in homage to the victims of the Holocaust, with a soprano setting of poems by one of the survivors, is a "cri du coeur" of visceral and dramatic intensity The stark realism of these poems is graphically illustrated by the orchestra which captures terror in all its aspects; fear, revulsion, anger, and finally sad resignation find voice through such devices as fluttered brass fanfares, shrieking strings, chiming celestas, and a solo violin, representing the beleaguered soul. This fifty minute work opened up new frontiers for Lees, as did Portrait of Rodin (1984), a suite of tonal impressions of coloristic sonority. And Lees the miniaturist is found in Mobiles (1989), a series of linked musical thumbprints based on moving abstract sculptural designs.
The Fifth Symphony (1988) is a more traditional structure, commemorating the arrival of Swedish immigrants to Delaware in the 1600s. Its hallmarks are rhythmic tension, intervallic interrelationships (especially octaves and fifths) and compactness of design. The initial mood of apprehension gradually yields to growing and expectation, culminating in a gloriously upbeat finale.
Amongst the finest of Lees' mature works is the Concerto for Brass Choir and Orchestra (1983), his third essay in a series of pieces for groups of concertante instruments with orchestra. Lees' skill in exploring instrumental contrasts, harmonic intervals (again fifths and octaves) while developing his materials is strongly evident here.
The Louisville Orchestra gave early support to the composer's career by recording his Second and Third Symphonies, and the Concerto for Orchestra (1959). The frequency with which his music is performed is testimony to its continuing popularity, with well-known conductors of major and regional orchestras mounting performances, not only of new commissions but also of earlier works.
Of his String Quartets, the Fourth (1989) demonstrates a favorite Lees device: continual evolution. Classical in structure described by the composer as "a landscape of shifting meters and turbulence," it is a masterful exposition of virtuosity, elegance and poise. The second fast movement is played pizzicato throughout and the final movement with its "hurly burly" of ideas and dissonant harmonies is a model of abstract form within tonal limits.
Always a disciplined artist, Lees has kept faith with his values and beliefs. For him, music can and should be approached and appreciated on its own terms. Programmatic backgrounds, ethnic considerations and "Americana" are not germane to his musical credo. His lifetime of exploration has been dedicated to the search for his own ideal of artistic truth. The "Lees style" is instantly recognizable and every work is possessed of lofty grandeur.