The Korean-Canadian is a renowned conductor and cellist who was Associate Conductor for the Pittsburgh Symphony from 2019 to 2021 and Resident Conductor for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 2015 to 2018. He sat down to talk to us about his time at MSM studying for his Master of Music with Director of Orchestral Activities George Manahan (BM ’73, MM ’76), the upcoming MSM performances, and what he’s most looking forward to in 2022!
Earl Lee (MM '13, Orchestral Conducting)
Earl: I think it is a great piece of music to read because everyone in the orchestra is very involved. From strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion to harps, everyone has really amazing parts that they can all look forward to learning and playing. I wanted to choose a piece of music where everyone can be engaged in a meaningful way. That’s why Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique is a good choice of music to read.
Earl: Symphonie Fantastique is a piece of music that is challenging for everyone, including the conductor. There are certain sections in the music that are really famous for conductors needing to learn. An example of one of the many challenges for the conductor and the players would be in the first movement when the recapitulation happens. There are a lot of off beats in the low strings, but while that’s happening, the melody is playing in the winds with a disfigured rhythm, and trying to keep that together can be challenging for everyone.
But what makes this piece so special is that there are certain images associated with each movement and it’s always really fun for adults, professional musicians, or student musicians to get into the detail of how the music portrays certain images. We can be playful and imaginative on what this music might represent and just to explore that together with everyone on stage is a really fun experience.
Earl: I will let them play more than me talking about certain things. It is a reading session, but I do expect the students to come prepared. I imagine I’ll rehearse the full orchestra the way I usually approach a first rehearsal. We are going to work on details, and I want to make sure everyone plays enough so they get a chance to really get the music under their fingers. Also I would like the students to understand the larger idea of the piece and how their parts fit into the entire orchestration.
“MSM was basically the very foundation of how I grew as a conductor, and George Manahan really helped me to set up a concrete and stable foundation so that I could grow further.” Earl Lee (MM '13, Orchestral Conducting)
“MSM was basically the very foundation of how I grew as a conductor, and George Manahan really helped me to set up a concrete and stable foundation so that I could grow further.”
Earl: It’s great. There’s great talent here. I wouldn’t even say talents, just the levels of musicality are really, really high. It’s always a pleasure to work with the people here, even back when I was a student and now coming back to work with the musicians at MSM this week. It’s a great pleasure for us to get to know each other and to make music together.
Earl: I received my Master’s degree at MSM, and this is my first conducting institution. I studied with George Manahan who’s still here and is conducting MSM Philharmonia the day before I’m conducting Camerata Nova. Some of the repertoire I’ve chosen is very special to me because these are some of the first pieces I studied with George. For example, Stravinsky’s Concerto in E-flat “Dumbarton Oaks” was my audition piece. After I was accepted into the program, I studied this piece in depth with George, so it’s very special in that way. It’s a fun piece of music but a very important piece for the younger musicians to learn because it teaches you how to play together and also how to decipher the complex meters. The Dallapiccola Piccola musica notturna is another piece of music I studied with George while I was a student here. It was actually really heartwarming to get the score from the orchestra library because the photo copy I received still had my marking in it from when I was a student first learning the piece. I made the 12-tone rows and all its inversions, and the graph was still in the score. The work is associated with a poem, and I wrote the translation in the score and that was still there too. So when I got the score from the library and opened it up, it was very special moment for me.
Earl: MSM is basically the very foundation of how I grew as a conductor, and George really helped me to set up a concrete and stable foundation so that I could grow further. He’s truly my first conducting teacher and he started me off in a very warm and generous way. He’s so kind, and he never made me feel uncomfortable or nervous. He was so open and helped me take things in a really positive way. Rather than being worried about certain rehearsals where meeting a new group of people is already nerve-racking to begin with, he helped me to always remain open. His willingness to work with musicians in a very communicative and positive way is a very good example for all the students who have gone through the program.
Earl: Aside from my time working with George Manahan, I found the other classes I took outside of conducting extremely valuable. My degree from MSM was my second Master’s degree, I received my first degrees in cello, so when I initially came in, I wanted to just concentrate on conducting, however, I was required to take other non-conducting-related classes. In these classes, I was able to study with different types of faculty members, which I very much enjoyed. The different classes are so unique, and the amount of topics you can choose from is so valuable. I remember really enjoying Reiko Fueting’s score-reading class as well as [J. Mark] Stambaugh’s orchestra history class. I also took Nils Vigeland’s class on analyzing 20th-century music when he was still teaching at MSM. These classes have stayed with me even now, which is almost 10 years later. This is one of many valuable things that the school offered.
Earl: Personally, I’m looking forward to seeing my daughter grow. She’s about a year and a half now, and I love seeing her grow every day and learn new things. I see the light bulb going off above her head every day, which is really magical for me to watch. Another thing I’m looking forward to is in two weeks, I make my debut with the New York Philharmonic on their February 8 Lunar New Year concert. That’s something that I’m excited about and also a little nervous for. I also make my debut with the San Francisco Symphony later in February. Those are two musical events I’m really looking forward to!
Earl Lee (MM ’13), Conductor
LUIGI DALLAPICCOLA Piccola musica notturna (for chamber orchestra)
DONGHOON SHIN The Hunter’s Funeral
RICHARD WAGNER Siegfried Idyll, WWV 103
IGOR STRAVINSKY Concerto in E-flat “Dumbarton Oaks” I. Tempo giusto II. Allegretto III. Con moto
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