Lee Burgess’s path as a musician began the way it does for so many: with his band teacher at Riverside Middle School in Pendleton, South Carolina. A kid picks up a saxophone, someone shows him what’s possible, and everything follows from that.
For Burgess, what followed was an Artist Diploma in saxophone performance from the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities and a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from UNC Greensboro, earned on a performance scholarship. Then he did what teachers do: he turned around and reached back. He returned to the Governor’s School to teach, and spent his early career on podiums across North Carolina, leading high school bands to consecutive Superior ratings and sending students on to All-District, All-State, and All-National ensembles; and ultimately, on to distinguished paths in medicine, law, the military, and beyond as informed, engaged audience members. At the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, he deepened the craft as an Albert C. Yates Fellow, earning a Master of Music Education, taking up the baton of the Cincinnati Youth Wind Ensemble as their graduate conductor and manager, and conducting research in music cognition and access, the science underneath the art he’d been teaching all along.
In 2021, the Greater Springfield area became home. At STEM Middle Academy, Burgess built a band and music technology program from the same raw material his own story started with: middle schoolers and instruments. During his tenure, the program grew to 45% of the student population with a 90% retention rate, and the work kept widening from there. He developed a general music curriculum for Springfield’s middle schools and, through Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s STEM Education Center, wrote integrated STEAM lessons and led teacher training across Massachusetts. He also served as elected treasurer of the Springfield Education Association and sits on the state’s AI in Education Taskforce. Most of Burgess’s career serves to answer the question “how is the path to musical excellence kept open, and who keeps it?” That question has oriented him around two of his core beliefs:
1. Some art cannot be done alone; the best music happens within community.
2. Every young musician deserves to see a path forward and guidance to success.
Now, as Director of Youth Programs & Education, Lee Burgess brings that question to the Springfield Symphony Youth Orchestra. “I am excited for the future of the Springfield Symphony Youth Orchestra!”