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Lee McClure Combining his careers of impresario, composer, and performer on his self-designed Electric Flute, Lee McClure has been presenting concerts for over twenty years in New York City. He has developed a compositional style that combines highly melodic writing and a distinctly personal use of traditional harmony. These unite for an emotional depth that appeals to all audiences. Lee's classical oeuvre includes two operas, a symphony, orchestral works, ballets, choral pieces, art songs, piano solos, and numerous chamber works. His Cerulean Narrows for orchestra can be heard by clicking on "Compositions" on his website:   http://www.EclectixNYC.org With Pulitzer-prize-nominated playwright Ron Whyte Lee collaborated for ten years. (Ron's bio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Whyte). A staged reading of their first opera, Mother And Child, was premiered at the Cathedral St. John The Divine in New York City. (see The New York Times review) The Gregg Smith Singers have premiered three of Lee's choral compositions, including his Litany To The Holy Spirit. The Eclectix Chamber Orchestra’s premiere of Hiatus was praised by The New York Times critic Tim Page who declared it “was probably the most distinguished piece on the program: the harmonies had bite and the musical ideas seemed both organic and Mr. McClure’s own.” In Lee's Symphony No.1 for Jazz Drummer and Symphonic Orchestra the drummer keeps time in the jazz sections, improvises brush and mallet fills in the classical section, and performs an unaccompanied improvised cadenza at the climax of the piece. With 60% of the symphony being Jazz and 40% classical, the styles include: Bossa Nova, Latin, Medium Swing, Neo-classical, Impressionism, Atonal, Slow Minor Blues, Jazz March, Fast Bebop, and Gershwinesque sections. Lee founded the Eclectix Chamber Orchestra because of the absence of new melodic and tonal music being performed by music groups, large or small. Including Jazz and classical music, Eclectix has presented over 100 living composers in 15 years. (see review.) Ron Carter's pieces for cello quartet were given their first reading on an Eclectix concert. Also appearing on the Eclectix stage have been ensembles lead by Dick Hyman, Bill Charlap, Fred Hersch, Jane Ira Bloom, and Jeremy Steig. Other concerts have presented works by Earl Robinson (premiere), Gordon Parks (premiere), Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Meyer Kupferman, Dave Brubeck, and Ward Swingle. Lee's Jazz works include his 2008 CD: A Jazz Christmas Like You've Never Heard. It was heard on 40 radio stations around the U.S and is McClure's highly unusual arrangements of standard Christmas songs built for serious contemporary bebop improvisations featuring Chris Hunter (sax) and Margaret Dorn (vocals): http://cdbaby.com/cd/leemclure2 Black Light is the 2011 CD of McClure’s trio featuring his Electric Flute with guitar and percussion. http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/leemccluretrio In 2007 Lee founded the Eclectix Dance Company in order to develop the technique in which the audience can see and feel live-music changing in response to the dancers movements – and vise versa. Lee creates all the music on Electric Flute, and contributes significant ideas for the choreography, lighting, costumes, and stage-design. The company's debut performance was at the New Dance Group Theater (NYC). See video clips on Lee's website:  http://www.EclectixNYC.org Lee is a graduate of the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College where he received a B.S. in Music Composition. He also studied at the University of California-Berkeley, San Francisco Art Institute, and Berklee College of Music in Boston. A recipient of numerous ASCAP Special Awards, Lee’s compositions have been performed by the Old First Orchestra of San Francisco, the Saturday Brass Quintet, and he has received commissions from the Janet Gerson Dance Company, the King David Orchestra, and the Breve Trio. Other major works of Lee McClure include: his second opera Voice ~ orchestral works: Hiatus and Elohim And Adam ~ two pianos: Suite from The Voyage ~ string quartet: Night Shifts ~ electric flute: Lonely Woman: New Orleans after Katrina ~ For Jimi Hendrix, ~ Through a Glass Darkly. As an author Lee was invited to present his essay The Separation of Art and Society at the Society of Composers Inc’s 1997 national conference in Miami. At Touro College Lee assembled 12 hours of recordings of 5-minute excerpts from 350 years of American music for a survey course that he designed and taught.

http://www.EclectixNYC.org      mailto:eclectix@earthlink.net     212-566-2217 – NYC, USA