Joanna Lee

By the time she was eighteen, Joanna Lee had achieved a Performance Diploma on the piano, Grade 8 distinction in voice and music theory, and Grade 7 distinction on the violin. Joanna subsequently went on to study for a BMus(Hons) degree specialising in composition under the Joe Cutler at Birmingham Conservatoire and The Norwegian State Academy of Music, where, upon graduation she received the Composition Prize and was awarded a place at the Royal Academy of Music for post-graduate study. Joanna is currently studying for an MPhil/PhD in composition under the supervision of Edwin Roxburgh, Sarah Leonard, Roger Marsh, Howard Skempton and Steve Halfyard, generously supported by the RVW Trust.

Joanna's work has been performed by a variety of musicians and ensembles including Sarah Leonard, Jane's Minstrels, The Fidelio Trio, BCMG, and The Elysian Quartet. These have included performances as part of the BMIC-Cutting Edge Series, Spitalfields Festival, COMA Summer School Festival and the York Late Music Festival, and have included such venues as The Warehouse, Shoreditch Church and The Spitz.

Joanna was short-listed by the spnm in 2002 and has received many performances and commissions since, including a current 6-month project composing a music theatre piece for Psappha to be conducted by Nicholas Kok and staged by Elaine Tyler Hall, and a collaboration with Jane's Minstrels to coincide with Jane Manning's AHRC Creative Arts Research Fellowship at Kingston University. Her vocal works have been used in workshops, masterclasses and conferences held by Jane Manning and Sarah Leonard, and have received mentions in the magazines 'The Singer' and 'Singing' (Association of Teachers of Singing). Joanna's solo violin piece, ...over the garden fence, was nominated for a British Composer Award by spnm.

Commissions and Performances
New Commission - 2008
19 February 2008: Town Hall, Birmingham (world premiere)
20 February 2008: Civic Hall, Stratford-upon-Avon