In the faculty:

Teaching activities:
Conductor of the University of Manitoba Symphony Orchestra

In the community:
Resident conductor of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra

Contact:
rlee@wso.mb.ca

Professional Bio: 

From the time his mother sat him down at a toy piano when he was three years old, Richard Lee has spent his life immersed in music. He graduated to a real piano at the age of five and took up the violin at age seven.  After several long years of coerced practicing, he finally began to enjoy playing, and at age seventeen, passed with honours the grade X piano and violin exams at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

After a brief and ill-advised stint as a physics major, Richard came to his senses and pursued a degree in Music Performance at the University of Toronto instead, where as both a violinist and a violist, he studied with Lorand Fenyves, Rennie Regehr and Ken Perkins while studying conducting with Pierre Hétu and Dwight Bennett. Further studies and mentoring in conducting ensued, most notably with Yoav Talmi, Jorma Panula, Gustav Meier, Geoffrey Moull and Kirk Trevor. He has participated in masterclasses for such eminent musicians as Pinchas Zukerman, Rivka Golani, Charles Castleman, Gunther Herbig, Andrew Davis, Helmuth Rilling and the Julliard, Emerson, Muir and Budapest String Quartets.  After teaching middle school music for five years, Richard returned to the U of T where, as the Victor Feldbrill Fellow in orchestral conducting, he obtained a Master’s degree under the tutelage of Raffi Armenian.

Formerly Conductor-in-Residence of the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra and Assistant conductor of the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, Richard is currently Resident conductor of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, conductor of the University of Manitoba Symphony Orchestra, as well as Music Director of the Korean Canadian Symphony Orchestra, based in Toronto.  He has also appeared with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Quebec Bach Festival orchestra, the Huntsville Festival Orchestra and the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra, as well as working extensively with the Filharmonie Bohuslava Martinů in the Czech Republic.  His work has been broadcast and recorded by the CBC/Radio-Canada.  Musician, news junkie and connoisseur of fine ales, whiskies and cigars, Richard maintains residences in both Winnipeg and Toronto.