Wen-Pin Hope Lee

Wen-Pin Hope Lee (; born 1967) is a Hoklo Taiwanese contemporary music composer and Professor. His works comprise a variety of genres, including symphonies, theatre, dance, solo works, chamber music, computer music, and multimedia performance art. In 2004 he began his Taiwan Series of compositions: a body of work inspired by Taiwanese culture, including Indigenous peoples and Hakka melodies, sung texts in Taiwanese, and the ambient sounds of Taiwan locales. Lee is the winner of the 2006 Golden Melody Award for Best Composer of Traditional and Artistic Music and a nominee for the 2007 Golden Melody Award for his recording of his five-act theatre dance piece Hsiahai City God through Water of Mengjia. In 2013, Lee won an award for his collaborative work with Radio Taiwan International on “Happiness on March” at 48th Golden Bell Awards.

Lee resides in Taipei, where he teaches composition at his alma mater, the National Taiwan Normal University. He has served as the head of the pop-songwriting department since 2016. He is also active in the leadership of the Sonare Symphony Orchestra in Taipei.

Education Lee first experiences with music were as a child under the tutelage of pianist Chiu-chin Lai (賴秋鏡). At the age of 17 he began studies in composition and music theory with Prof. Chin-yow Lin (林進祐). He entered the bachelor's program at the National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) the following year; his teachers were Shing-kwei Tzeng (曾興魁), Mao-shuen Chen (陳茂萱) and Shu-shi Chen (陳樹熙). Upon graduation Lee moved to America for graduate studies in composition and music theory at the Boston University. His teachers in Boston were Lukas Foss, Theodore Antoniou and Marjorie Merryman. Lee was awarded the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition in 1999.

Publications

Print

Lee's autobiography has been published in book form in a collection entitled Discovering Formosa: Taiwanese Contemporary Composers.

Lee regularly publishes scholarly research and presents lectures as well as compositions. The topics usually relate to his creative work, as when the ArtsIT 2009 Conference in Taiwan featured him in a panel discussion of "An Interactive Concert Program Based on Infrared Watermark and Audio Synthesis."

Recordings Audio CD: Rondo Capriccio: NTNU Symphony Orchestra Tour Concerts 2004 (2004). Produced by the National Taiwan Normal University. Includes Narcissus Flower and Dream of Spring at the River. Audio CD: Adventures of Four Cellos (2006). Produced by Ling-yi Ouyang. Includes Taiwan is the Formosa: Six Cello Quartets of Fu Lao Folk Tunes. Winner of the 2006 Golden Melody Award. Audio CD, Video DVD: The Banga City God (2007). Nominated for 2007 Golden Melody Award for Best Album Producer for Traditional and Art Music. Audio CD: Telltale: Beginning with Formosa. Includes Taiwanese Melodies: Six Piano Quartets from Fu Lao Folk Tunes.