Lee, Dai-Keong

Lee, Dai-Keong, Hawaiian composer of Chinese descent; b. Honolulu, Sept. 2, 1915. Following premed training at the Univ. of Hawaii (1933–36), he pursued musical studies with Sessions and Jacobi at the Juilliard Graduate School in N.Y. (1938–41), with Copland at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood (summer, 1941), and with Luening at Columbia Univ. (M.A., 1951). He held 2 Guggenheim fellowships (1945, 1951). Lee’s works utilize various native elements for the most part, although he has embraced a neo-Classical approach in some of his more ambitious scores.

Works

dramatic: Opera: The Poet’s Dilemma (N.Y., April 12, 1940); Open the Gates (1951); Phineas and the Nightingale (1952); Speakeasy (N.Y., Feb. 8, 1957); 2 Knickerbocker Tales (1957); Ballad of Kitty the Barkeep (1979; based on Speakeasy). musical p1ays:Noa Noa (1972); Jenny Lind (1981; based on Phineas and the Nightingale). incidental music:Teahouse of the August Moon (1953; orch. suite, 1954). Ballet: Waltzing Matilda (1951). other: Film scores. orch.:Prelude and Hula (1939); Hawaiian Festival Overture (1940); Golden Gate Overture (1941); Introduction and Scherzo for Strings (1941); 2 syms.: No. 1 (1941-42; rev. 1946) and No. 2 (San Francisco, March 14, 1952); Pacific Prayer (1943; rev. as Canticle of the Pacific for Chorus and Orch., 1968); Violin Concerto (1947; rev. 1955); Polynesian Suite (1958); Mele alili (Joyful Songs) for Soloists, Chorus, and Orch. (1960); Concerto Grosso for Strings (1985). other: Chamber music; songs.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire