Born in Taipei in 1965, composer Tzyy-Sheng LEE began piano lessons at the age of four. He was admitted five years later to the prestigious Experimental Music Class, where his formal musical training was launched. Mr. Lee received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theory and Composition from Taipei National University of Arts in 1988. Following the completion of two years in military service in Fall 1990, he undertook studies at Boston University, where he received his Master of Music, and then at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a William Penn Fellow and was awarded a Ph.D. in Musical Composition in May of 1996. Noted composition teachers with whom he has studied include Professors Yen Lu, Hwang-Long Pan, Theodore Antoniou, Lukas Foss, Richard Wernick and George Crumb.
Dr. Lee won the Yoshiro Irino Memorial Prize of the Asian Composers' League in 1986 and the Open Composition Competitions sponsored by the Council for Cultural Affairs of the Republic of China in 1984, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991 and 1992. His works have been performed in Poland, Netherlands, France, Germany, Austria, United States, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Thailand as well as Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. In particular, Dr. Lee's works have been included in programs at the ISCM World Music Days, the Aspekte Salzburg, the Asian Composers' League Festivals, the Asia-Pacific Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, SCI Regional Conferences, the World Saxophone Conference, Shanghai Spring Festival, Warsaw Autumn and Dresden New Music Festival. His music has also been presented at the International Rostrum of Composers (UNESCO) in Paris in May 1992, and broadcast in Austria, Netherlands, Iceland, Norway, Hong Kong, Japan and Australia.
Since his return to Taiwan in Summer 1996, Dr. Lee has served on the faculty at National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung and National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu.