Christy Lee continues to lead a diverse career as a collaborative pianist, chamber musician, vocal coach, and educator. In the world of opera, Lee has worked as pianist, coach, and assistant conductor at Opera Memphis, Chattanooga Opera, Pensacola Opera, Cleveland Opera, Knoxville Opera, Marble City Opera, Crested Butte Music Festival, Lake Placid International Voice Seminar, Pine Mountain Music Festival, and Dorian Opera Theatre. She has worked regularly as Music Director for the Harrower Summer Opera Workshop (Atlanta, GA) and as Principal Coach for the Imperial Symphony Orchestra (Lakeland, FL). She made her conducting debut in Mozart, Flute of Heaven while serving as Music Director for the Vocal Arts Apprentice Program of Lyric Opera Cleveland in its 1996 Festival Season.
From 2008 to 2014 she was on the faculty at The College of The Bahamas where along with COB colleagues Christine Gangelhoff (flute) and Christian Justilien (euphonium), she was a founding member of C Force, the premier chamber group of the College of The Bahamas. Since their inception in 2008, this innovative ensemble has been offering a unique approach to the concept of chamber music by specializing in performances of Caribbean art music. Their repertoire includes traditional Classical music as well as arrangements and original compositions from a wide variety of Caribbean composers. They are quickly gaining popularity in the Caribbean region having performed recently in the Dominican Republic, St. Croix, St. Thomas, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago as well as throughout the islands of The Bahamas. Their first CD, Tchaka Mizik, is a reflection of C Force's unique fusion of cultures and styles. It was produced in 2010 at the world-renowned Compass Point Studios in Nassau and was hailed by Jamaican-born pianist Paul Shaw as "Sheer Magic!" Their subsequent CD's, Deep Blue and Tour de Force, are dedicated to the music of The Bahamas and the Caribbean.
Active as a recitalist and a chamber musician, Dr. Lee collaborates with both instrumentalists and vocalists. She has appeared in concert throughout North America, the Caribbean, and Europe. Recent performances have been with Stanford Olsen, tenor, with the Nassau Music Society, cellist Kenneth Law at the Grand Bahamas Performing Arts Society, and soprano Caroline Schiller at the Memorial Arts Series in Newfoundland, Canada. Other recordings include Belgian Music for Cello and Piano with cellist Wesley Baldwin (Centaur label) and Broadway Baby, a collaboration with soprano Dalia Feldman produced as a fundraising project for young Bahamian musicians.
Dr. Lee was Director of Accompanying and Music Director of UT Opera Theater and the Knoxville Opera Studio at The University of Tennessee for seven years; in addition, she has held academic appointments at The Cleveland Institute of Music, Encore School for Strings, Delta State University, Florida State University, and Maryville College. As an active member of the American Choral Director's Association, she serves regularly as a collaborative pianist and clinician at national and district conferences as well as with honor choirs throughout the country and Caribbean. In May of 2012, she had the pleasure of being a translator and vocal coach for the inaugural US/Cuba Choral Summit in Havana, Cuba and was as an Executive Leader for America Cantat 2016 in The Bahamas.
Dr. Lee holds the DM in Accompanying and Chamber Music from Florida State University where she was the recipient of the prestigious University Fellowship. She received the Bachelor of Music degree, magna cum laude, in piano performance from The University of Alabama and the Master of Music degree in collaborative piano from The Cleveland Institute of Music, where she was the recipient of the first Madame Gwendolyn Koldofsky Accompanying Award and was recently honored with the Brooks Smith Outstanding Alumni in Collaborative Piano Award. She made her orchestral debut with the Jackson (Tennessee) Symphony Orchestra as winner of the 1988 Mid-South Piano Concerto Competition. Lee is the newest member of the music faculty at Mississippi State University and resides in Starkville, MS.
