Desert Baroque
413-285-6881
Desert Baroque is sponsored by the Collaborative Arts and Culture Foundation. Donations to Desert Baroque are tax exempt under IRS Code 501(c)(3).
The Baroque Era in a Modern Age
Sonia Lee
Scholar-performer Sonia Lee has given performances, talks and masterclasses in more than eighteen countries on four continents. Her performances have been praised by critics as "masterly" (Aliénor News & Notes), "nicely rendered" (Early Music America Magazine), "full of elegance and expression" (Cleveland Classical), and possessing "grace and flair" (Sounding Board, British Harpsichord Society). She is a laureate of the Mae & Irving Jurow International Harpsichord Competition, the Montréal Baroque Galaxie-CBC Rising Star Competition, the Canadian Music Competition, and the American Musical Instrument Society William E. Gribbons Award.
A performer on modern and historical keyboards with a versatile repertoire spanning from the 16th to the 21st century, she has appeared as soloist and collaborative artist at numerous festivals and venues, among them: the early music festivals of Utrecht, Boston and Costa Rica, the Rome Festival, the Nordic Historical Keyboard Festival, the Early Keyboard Music Cycle of Buenos Aires, the Midtown Concerts of New York, the Milwaukee Museum of the Pianoforte, the KEK-Japan Concerts, the Early Music Colorado Fall Festival, the National Music Museum of Vermillion, the Olympus Hall of Seoul, and the Taipei National Concert Hall.
Her discography includes premiere recordings of rediscovered music of Bembo, Weigl, Kozeluch, and Berg on Mark Records, Arabesque, and other labels. Dr. Lee holds advanced degrees in music from McGill University in Canada and the University of Illinois in the U.S., with additional study in public administration and non-profit management at Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education. Her keyboard teachers have included Charlotte Mattax, Hank Knox, Luc Beauséjour, Joyce Lindorff, and Kenneth Gilbert. A former musicology faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University in the U.S., she is currently a faculty artist of the Desert Baroque Workshops in California and serves as the President of the Historical Keyboard Society of North America. Visit www.sonialeemusic.com.