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Feature Story: Composer-in-Residence Scott Lee
Composer-in-Residence
Scott Lee
“Composer-in-Residence” is a somewhat vague umbrella title, in that it can cover pretty much everything. Interestingly though, most composers who work in that capacity with an ensemble are only in physical residence for a brief – albeit extremely intensive – period of time. Case in point: Scott Lee, whose three-year residency with the Bozeman Symphony began last year and wraps up at the end of the 2023-24 season, will be physically in Montana for about one week per season. While he’s in town, Lee will work with composition students at Montana State University, and cocurate a brand-new contemporary music series, Current Commotion, with Music Director Norman Huynh. Lee will also spend time with the orchestra as they rehearse his newest work, written to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Yellowstone National Park.
As of this writing, Lee, who was born and raised in St. Petersburg and now teaches composition at the University of Florida in Gainesville, had never been to Yellowstone. He was scheduled to visit in June, but had to cancel after epic rains and flooding closed the park. Lee has rescheduled his trip for September; in the meantime, he is immersing himself in the sounds of Yellowstone via a massive free online sound archive created and maintained by the National Park Service. The archive contains all kinds of sounds: bears growling, birds singing, wolves howling, but also the sounds of the park itself: burping paint pots, the roar of Yellowstone Falls, and the hiss of erupting geysers.
Last season, Lee composed The Last Best Place, a sixminute evocation of Bozeman. Lee has prior experience writing about specific places; his first full-length album, Through the Mangrove Tunnels, released in the fall of 2020, captures the distinctive qualities of Weedon Island Preserve, a park he visited often when he was growing up.
How does Lee write about a location? “For me it’s a process of finding out what’s most important for me to say about a place,” he says. This involves tapping into energy of a place and then transforming it into music. He doesn’t transcribe actual sounds from the natural world, like birdsong, as some composers have done. For Lee the process is more elusive, almost like alchemy: how to engineer a metamorphosis from the unique atmosphere inherent in all places into pitches, rhythms, harmonies, colors, and structures.
Last season, in preparation for writing The Last Best Place, Lee spent a week in Bozeman. “I talked to different people: politicians, artists, writers, Symphony board and audience members,” he explains. “I went to every coffee shop in Bozeman. I got this feeling from everyone that what they loved about Bozeman was changing and they were afraid of losing what they had.” These changes affect every aspect of life in Bozeman, as the economy evolves from farming and ranching to an emerging tech hub. “The ‘honest work’ blue-collar town was becoming a magnet attracting a lot of wealthy people,” Lee continues, “and changes to the landscape. The area from Bozeman to Yellowstone is known as the Serengeti because it’s an open corridor for wildlife. The growing population is threatening that with sprawl.” In the music, Lee captured the evolving dynamic interactions between humans and nature, as well as changes in the demographics, economics, and attitudes of the residents.
So how did a native Floridian become the first Composerin-Residence for a Montana orchestra? Lee and Huynh are friends from school; they met as graduate students at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. “We’ve worked together for a while,” said Lee.
After Huynh became Bozeman’s music director two years ago, he set about creating a composer-in-residency program with Lee in mind as the orchestra’s first musicsmith. At 34, Lee already has an impressive resume, which includes collaborations with some of the top orchestras and ensembles in the country, and several prestigious awards.
The Philadelphia Inquirer hails Lee’s music as “colorful” and “engaging,” as he marries classical forms with popular contemporary music genres.
Ideas for Lee’s Yellowstone piece, as yet unnamed, are gestating in his creative consciousness as he contemplates his upcoming sojourn to the park. “For me it’s about trying to discover the character of a place, and finding the right music to fit that character. Contrasts are important; different components of the natural space will define the structure of the work. I can tell you this much: the Yellowstone piece will be celebratory, written for a joyous occasion, and hopefully capturing the beauty of the place.”
