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| trashed by the critics again... |
Andrew McKenna Lee |
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Lee and his percussionist, Michael McCurdy, spun out an imaginative frenzy of notes and effects... Lee showed considerable technical prowess as the piece was filled with devilishly difficult fingerwork. Dense, tight harmonies shifted along with strumming patterns and picked notes filled the air leaving precious little breath in the music, yet the whole was consistently engaging. Again with McCurdy, Lee utilized electric guitar and three looping machines in a highly effective performance of his Unraveling. In experiencing this work one risks missing the overall effect and groove of the music when caught up in McCurdy's fascinating mallet and bow work on vibraphone among the rest of his battery of percussive tools. –Sarasota Herald Tribune, September 20, 2010 The Five Refractions of a Prelude by Bach is a staggeringly inventive and virtuosic set of variations... From the very beginning we hear a tremendous musical and guitaristic mind at work in the melodic shapes, harmonic ideas, and especially textural integration of notes played by both hands with those played by the left and embedded harmonics. Parts of the piece are delicately beautiful, while others are aggressive and violent, but integrated into a stunning whole... the dark out of the nighttime—the title taken from a song by Bob Dylan—is likewise substantial and inventive work. While Lee is a fine guitarist, as a composer he is not limited to the instrument: flute, viola, guitar, and harp are each used idiomatically yet innovatively, with a marvelous exploration of the sonorities which can result from their combinations. I have absolutely no idea what the composer was going for in Scordatura Suite... There is ferociously violent playing followed by meditative, reflective moments, as well as highly original deployment of non-traditional techniques all over the instrument... I'm not sure if he was going for the rock/classical synthesis, but if he was, it's the best effort of its kind I have yet heard. –Soundboard, Vol. XXXVI, No. 3 Taken as a whole, the composition [Five Refractions] was intellectually engaging... but also skillfully paced rhetorically to give the sequence of movements a sense of a journey that ends with an energetic toccata. One might say that, in each of the works he performed, Lee tried to seek out the most appropriate "voice" for his guitar; and he always seemed to succeed, regardless of what he was playing... His approach to performance always summoned the concentration of the listener, but that concentration was always rewarded by the time each work he offered came to its conclusion. –San Francisco Examiner, May 22, 2010 "I got [Electric Counterpoint] by Andrew McKenna Lee and it's great! A magnificent performance beautifully recorded." –Steve Reich "Andrew McKenna Lee made a strong impression with his early 2009 recording Gravity and Air and now makes perhaps an even stronger impression with his latest collection Solar/Electric. Though the recording's only thirty-five minutes long, it feels more substantial, perhaps because the opener in particular is so densely packed with sounds. What distinguishes Solar/Electric most, however, is the contrast that emerges when the raw unpredictability of the Hendrix homage is juxtaposed against the cerebral lockstep of the Reich piece. Hearing the one immediately after the other may be jarring but not unappealingly so. Instead, the radical shift in tone brings into sharp relief Lee's range and the ease with which he's able to excel in different contexts." "...a fabulous recording of Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint... this performance seems the way the music has always meant to be. Lee's production and attack are bright and full of verve, the articulation of each note makes the music almost dance and pushes it forward with a supple, flexible feeling for rhythm and tempo... an absolutely beautiful sonic surface and depth. His emphasis on what he hears as the important elements of Reich's counterpoint and beat show a tremendous feeling for and understanding of the music, and his slow middle movement is as lyrical as a great pop song... It's absolutely stunning and is a real masterpiece of instrumental performance." –George Grella, The Big City Gravity and Air named one of the "Top Ten Classical Albums of 2009" in Timeout Chicago! –Doyle Armbrust, TimeOut Chicago "The inventive and exciting guitarist/composer Andrew McKenna Lee... is an astoundingly virtuosic guitar player... and far more importantly, he is a thoughtful and original composer, one who is continually finding new ways to work the guitar's rougher, more sensual textures into classical frameworks... A singular modern voice for an instrument sorely in need of one." –Jayson Greene, eMusic.com "Gravity and Air is a ravishing collection of classical guitar playing and (with one exception) original compositions from Andrew McKenna Lee... On purely sonic grounds, his playing tends as much towards elegant restraint as it does aggressive exuberance... Gravity and Air is no exercise in polite wallpaper music, in other words. At no time is Lee's obviously virtuosic command of the instrument gratuitously showcased; instead, the focus shines equally on his stunning guitar playing and his ambitious large-scale compositions." "...Andrew played solo, and that constituted the most dazzling portion of the evening... What impressed me most was the amount of textures Lee pulled out of the guitar — rough, sensual sounds, full of percussive tapping and scraping strings; thick strumming; startlingly loud plunks done with the thumb; and lilting, flamenco-ish finger-picking... it was truly a captivating show." “It’s audacious and effective… Lee capture’s the ear immediately with the sound of shared intimacy, and then proceeds through a series of imaginative, skillful variations that are clearly grounded in their formal Baroque antecedents; Lee is a master of contrapuntal playing and builds on that as each variation gradually moves away from counterpoint into more abstract, improvisatory playing. The music is intriguing and satisfying, opening new questions that seek answer within the piece.” –George Grella, The Big City “Lee, a South Carolina native, is currently enrolled in the Ph.D. composition program at Princeton University, so clearly the man knows his stuff. But does that translate to music you’ll want to listen to? Absolutely… Gravity and Air is a pleasure to listen to… it’s clearly the work of a very talented artist who has a lot to say, and I look forward to hearing more from him.” –grayflannelsuit.net, January 2009 “Andrew McKenna Lee is a highly technical guitarist who combines snatches of classical, jazz and rock styles in an awe-inspiring display of agility.” –TimeOut New York, January 2009 “Mr. Lee, who writes his own technique-testing showpieces, works in the self-contained tradition of the 18th- and 19th-century virtuoso-composer… with echoes of Tárrega, Falla and other stalwarts of the guitar repertory providing a warm patina to [his] energetic playing.” –The New York Times, Nov. 21, 2008 “... a flurry of notes from the strings and woodwinds builds until joined by the brass, which falls away to leave the violins on a tense spiccato (quickly bouncing bow) chord... the excitement is undeniable, the three-against-two feel in a late march-like section coming through...” –Symphony Magazine online, League of American Orchestras “… an oeuvre which has never stood still and has constantly diversified - McKenna Lee is just as adept at scoring within a classical setting as for electronic textures, and his definition of the latter includes Jimi Hendrix just as naturally as the former does Bach… In his solo guitar pieces, counterpoints are just as present as Western guitar techniques and Flamenco influences, while atmospheric passages clash with dazzling virtuosity. The border with his electronic work is fluent: a piece like Sunrise from the Bottom of the Sea again relies on the electric guitar, albeit in combination with pre-recorded material, and fluently makes the transition to a more spacious mix of bent concrete sounds with long, sustained tones. This only goes to prove that Andrew not merely considers diversity as a goal for his overall career, but for the body of his compositions as well.” –Tokafi, July 2007 “… impressively virtuosic.” –Sequenza 21, March 2007 “…delightful…” –Philadelphia City Paper, March 2007 “Andrew McKenna Lee’s short work [Arabescata] also was superbly performed and does achieve the composer’s rather playful… intent of connecting his two loves of rock and roll and classical music…” –New Music Connoisseur, March 2007 “There are recordings for many, many of his excellent works, and Lee’s own performances on guitar are just phenomenal (for a stunning combination of the two, find his [Five Refractions of] a Prelude by Bach or his Scordatura Suite).” –Steve Layton, Sequenza 21, November 2006 “... Lee's command of his style must be respected. His orchestration is precise, the composition balanced with clear directional goals and the means to get there." –The New Jersey Star Ledger, July 25, 2002 “Andrew [McKenna] Lee is an extraordinary young composer… full of imagination [and] technical expertise… Beyond that, his music has a humanity which I find moving and unusual.” –David Del Tredici, Composer, Pulitzer Prize winner “... his creative imagination, technique, and search for what is authentic is most impressive for a composer of any age…” –Richard Danielpour, Composer, Faculty: Curtis Institute and Manhattan School of Music Interviews and other bits Feature in the Sarasota Herald Tribune Feature in the San Francisco Classical Voice Round Table Discussion with Composers Steven Mackey and Mark Dancigers Interview with New Amsterdam Records' Jacob Paul 1/29/09 Feature on WFMU Interview on Tokafi Interview
with Allison McNair on New Hampshire Public Television, aired August
28, 2003. |
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In April and May of 2003, I was fortunate enough to have been awarded a residency at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. I had an amazing time while I was there, and met some great people and some wonderful artists as well. During my residency, the MacDowell Colony asked me if I would be willing to do an interview with New Hampshire Public Television for their TV program, New Hampshire Outlook. Naturally, I said, "Sure thing." If for some reason the banner link above doesn't work, you can still access the program by going here and searching in the program archives. If you search with "Lee" as a keyword, you should be taken to a page of about five listings. Find the one titled "LCHIP Cuts; MacDowell Colony Profile - The Classical Guitar" which aired on August 28, 2003, and that'll be it. My interview begins around the 18 minute mark, and lasts about ten minutes. You'll need Real Player to watch the clip, but you can download it from NHPTV if you don't already have it. |
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