Faculty Biography
Rosey Lee
Title: Associate Professor *
Department: Ear Training
"Ear training is both about hearing music and knowing how to transcribe it, and reading music and being able to imagine the sound. It goes both ways. Ear training is also a seed that will help students reach another step in their music studies or even their future career. I always say, 'You might not need it now, but it might be very useful for your future.'
"I tell my own story as an example: I wish I'd studied the history of Western music harder when I was a student at Berklee. At the time I thought, I'm a composer, I don't need to learn about history as long as I can write music. But I later regretted it, and in graduate school I studied it very, very hard, just for my own sake. Often it's not until later in life that you realize how much you need something.
"I want my students to understand that music is like a talking language, and musical events are just like daily life. For example, counterpoint. This term may be scary for a lot of people. So I tell my students, 'You're listening to me, and you're sitting there with your heart beating, and you're still breathing. You have three things going on together simultaneously, and they all cooperate by themselves naturally. That's three-part counterpoint.' When you are the musician, you use music to make that happen. It is hard, and that's why you spend a lot of money and time at school, but it's not impossible."
- B.M., Berklee College of Music
- D.M.A., Boston University
- Guest composer at the third annual Double Reed Festival at the University of Memphis
- Supervised the recording of her string quartet, the Elements, under a Berklee College of Music Faculty Recording Grant
- Fulfilled a commission for “Prayer for the Universe” for mixed chorus and piano for the Arlington-Belmont Chamber Chorus
- Composed two celebration suites, which were premiered by the Boston Wind Ensemble in 1994 and 1998, and have been performed at graduation ceremonies each year since