Angus Lee : Lethescape [ 5 Meditation Fragments ]
for bass flute, violin & cello

for IRCAM ManiFeste Academy 2021

première :
26 June 2021, 
Le Centquatre-Paris,
Paris, France


Soloists of Ensemble Intercontemporain.
Wendy Vo Cong Tri (bass flute), Diego Tosi (violin), Éric-Maria Couturier (cello)

Lethescape (2020) - excerpt

Angus Lee : Apophisian Scriptures [ Lapsus memoriae IX ]
for contrabassoon, double bass, piano & stereophonic fixed media

Commissioned by SPLICE Festival IV

première :
22 October 2020
University of Georgia, 
U.S.A.

Subaerial Collective
Peter Van Zandt Lane (contrabassoon), Emily Koh (double bass), Adrian Childs (piano)

Apophisian Scriptures (2020) - excerpt

Angus Lee : ...ché la diritta via era smarrita
for ensemble with obligato solo marimba

Commissioned by Samuel Chan

première :
18 October 2022
Sheung Wan Civic Centre,
Hong Kong

Samuel Chan (marimba),
NOVA Ensemble
Stephenie Ng (contrabass claronet), Karen Yu (percussion), Joanne Li (piano), Sean Lai, Vivian Shen (violin), Wai-bun Chan (viola), Chak-yin Pun (cello)

Angus Lee (conductor)

...ché la diritta via era smarrita (2021) - Excerpt

Angus Lee : Palimpsest II
for string quartet

For OutHear Near Music Week 2021

première :
10 April 2022
Municipal Conservatory of Larissa,
Greece

Soloists of Klangforum Wien & PPCM
Sophie Schafleitner, Léa Moullet (violin),
Dimitrios Polisoidis (viola),
Leo Morello (cello)

Palimpsest II (2021) - Excerpt

Angus Lee : Chasing Waterfalls
opera in 7 scenes

Commissioned by Phase7Performing.Arts Gmbh
Co-created with klingklangklong

world première :
3 September 2022
Semperoper, Dresden
Germany

Asian première :
6th November 2022
New Vision Arts Festival
Hong Kong

Eir Inderhaug, Tania Lorenzo, Jessica Harper (soprano),
Julia Mintzer (mezzosoprano), Simeon Esper (tenor), Sebastian Wartig (baritone),
Hong Kong New Music Ensemble
Angus Lee (conductor)

Chasing Waterfalls (2022) - Excerpt

Angus Lee : Firecircle [ to the memory of Pierre Boulez ]
for solo flute(s), and three percussionists

commissioned by Raoul Cho

première :
6th May, 2016
Conservatory Theatre, Toronto Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto, Canada

Raoul Cho (piccolo, flute, bass flute),
Dave Burns, Andrew Rasmus, Michael Murphy (percussion),
Samuel Tam (cond.)

Firecircle [to the memory of Pierre Boulez] (2016) - excerpt

Angus Lee : Modus Operandi [I]
for string trio and percussion

commissioned by the Modern Academy

première :
22nd October, 2016
Room CR1, Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Tsim Sha Tsui, 
Hong Kong

Soloists of Hong Kong New Music Ensemble
Selena Choi (violin), William Lane (viola), Mu Zhu (cello), Sabrina Ma (percussion),
Kuok-man Lio (cond.)

Modus Operandi [I] (2016) - excerpt

Angus Lee : Aeolian Scriptures
for bass flute, sheng, double bass, and 2 channel fixed media

for the Sound and Image Challenge International Festival

première :
6th December, 2016
Sound and Image Challenge International Festival
Dom Pedro V Theatre, São Lourenço, Macau

Soloists of Hong Kong New Music Ensemble
Angus Lee (bass flute), Sze-wang Loo (sheng), Simon Hui (double bass), William Lane (fixed media)

Aeolian Scriptures (2016) - excerpt

Angus Lee : sous rature 
triptych for violin and viola

commissioned by the Ciclo de Música Contemporánea de Oviedo

première :
4th August, 2017
Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias, Ovideo, 
Spain

Soloists of Hong Kong New Music Ensemble
Selena Choi (violin), William Lane (viola)

sous rature (2017) - excerpt

Angus Lee : Et lux perpetua
spatial litany for three performers

for the ilSuono Academy for Young Composers

première :
23rd July, 2017
Sala degli Specchi, Circolo degli Illuminati,
Città di Castello, Perugia, Italy 

Soloists of Ensemble Suono Giallo
Andrea Biagini (flutes), Michele Bianchi (saxophones), Laura Mancini (percussion)

Et lux perpetua (2017) - excerpt

Angus Lee : Lapsus memoriae [ epitaffio in memoria di una città immaginaria ]
for solo flute, live-electronics and fixed media

commissioned by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, HKSAR Government
for the Académie Musica-Philippe Manoury (FR)

première :
6th October, 2018
Festival Musica
Salle de la Bourse, Strasbourg, France

Andrea Vecchiato (flute), Angus Lee (electronics)

Lapsus memoriae [ epitaffio in memoria di una città immaginaria ] (2018) - excerpt

Angus Lee : Cendré [ Frontispiece I ]
for solo alto flute, harp and cello

for the ARCo 21 Composition Academy

première :
12 July 2019
Frich belle de Mai, Marseille,
France

Soloists of Ensemble Multilatérale
Matteo Cesari (solo alto flute), Aurélie Saraf (harp), Pablo Tognan (cello), 
Léo Warynski (cond.)

Cendré [ Frontispiece I ] (2019) - excerpt

Angus Lee : Schattenhaft [ Frontispiece II ]
for bass flute, bass clarinet, piano, violin, cello

for the Ticino Musica International Academy for Young Composers

première :
29 July 2019
Lugano Arte e Cultura, Lugano,
Switzerland

Soloists of Ensemble Modern
Delphine Roche (bass flute), Hugo Queros (bass clarinet), 
Ueli Wiget (piano), Yorgos Panagiotidis (violin), Eva Böcker (cello),
Angus Lee (cond.)

Schattenhaft [ Frontispiece II ] (2019) - excerpt

Angus Lee (b.1992) is one of the foremost performer-composers of his generation. Born and raised in Hongkong, Lee has appeared at international music festivals across Asia, central Europe and North America in his capacities as flautist, composer and conductor. He completed his studies at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (2010-14) and the Royal Academy of Music (2014-16) with the highest honours, with his studies fully supported financially by the Aedas Scholarship and the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music & Dance Fund.

Lee was by training a conductor, and is recognised as one of Hongkong's leading performers in contemporary music. Since 2016 he has been a core musician of the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, and has worked in close quarters with, among others, Hingyan Chan, Unsuk Chin, Brett Dean, Du Yun, Toshio Hosokawa and Zhu Shirui, partaking in the regional and world premieres of their works. Most significantly, Lee has performed as soloist in Pierre Boulez's Mémoriale ( ... explosante-fixe ... Originel) at the composer's 90th birthday concert series (2015) and memorial concert (2016) at the Lucerne Festival. He has also stepped in at short notice at the Hong Kong premiere of composer Eugene Birman's multimedia music theatre, "The Once and Future" (2023), performing in the Berlin Philharmonic's ZeMu! Ensemble Berlin. Lee's recording of Camilo Mendez's solo flute music was also released in 2024 on the composer's monograph, released by the Austrian new music label, KAIROS.

As a composer, Lee was largely autodidactic, but has benefited, in particular, from the tutelage of composers Franck Bedrossian, Oscar Bianchi, Frédéric Durieux, Dimitri Papageorgiou, Philippe Manoury, Isabel Mundry, Yann Robin, and Johannes Schöllhorn at international composition academies. While his earlier works focused largely on the notion of 'virtuosity' and the relationship between notation and realisation, his recent works demonstrate a persistent interest in exploration different forms of musical temporality; his works have been performed by the likes of Ensemble Intercontemporain (FR), Ensemble Modern (DE), Ensemble Multilatérale (FR), HereNowHear (US), Klangforum Wien (AT), Kollektiv Totem (CH), the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Trio Accanto, and the Subaerial Collective (US). In 2022, Lee's first opera, Chasing Waterfalls, received its world premiere at Germany's Semperoper Dresden to critical acclaim; the work subsequently toured back to Hong Kong's New Vision Arts Festival to equally enthusiastic reception. The year 2024 saw the premiere of Des flammes... (2023-24), created for the HK Philharmonic's Robert Ho Hong Kong Composers Scheme, and ... aux cendres (2024), created under the baton of Elim Chan.

Lee is equally in demand as a conductor, largely though not exclusively focused on new music. He was one of the conducting fellows at Ensemble Modern's 10th International Composers and Conductors Seminar, studying under Stefan Asbury. He has additionally worked with Ensemble Suono Giallo, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Musikfabrik. the Hong Kong New Music Enasemble and the Neu Vocalsolisten Stuttgart at the ilSUONO Contemporary New Music Week (2016), Ticino Musica Festival (2018, 2022), the Frankfurt ...cresc... Biennale for Actual Music (2023) and the ECLAT Festival for New Music Stuttgart (2024), premiering the works by emerging fellow young composers. He has also stepped in at short notice to lead the Asian premiere of Michel van de Aa's music theatre, "The Book of Water" at the 2023 Hong Kong Arts Festival. In 2024, he led for the first time the University of Hong Kong's University Philharmonic, performing Bernstein's Candide Overture and Shostakovich's Symphony no.5 in D minor to popular acclaim.

A holder of the Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music (LRAM), Lee is currently serving as a full-time assistant lecturer at The University of Hong Kong's Music Department, coordinating all of the Department's performance courses in addition to teaching elementary music theory, conducting, chamber music, as well as supervising an undergraduate level capstone practice-based research course. He also teaches woodwind chamber music at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. He has also served as flute faculty at the Lucerne Festival Academy in 2022 and 2023.

Angus Lee

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