Apollo Lee

Biography

Apollo Lee is a professional trumpeter and teacher based in central Illinois. Active in classical music, opera, ballet, film music, and musical theater, Apollo has performed at numerous concert halls across Asia, Europe and the United States. Apollo served as the principal trumpet of the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong from 2010 to 2012, and recently joined the trumpet section of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra. As a guest musician, he has performed with ensembles including the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Macau Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, Symphoria, Binghamton Philharmonic, Cape Symphony Orchestra, and Plymouth Philharmonic. Apollo has also performed with the Hong Kong Wind Philharmonia and the world renowned Eastman Wind Ensemble, and toured with the Eastman Wind Ensemble to the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, and to Severance Hall in Cleveland. In 2017, Apollo was invited to Malaysia, where he served as the guest principal trumpet in the Malaysia Bach Festival Orchestra.

An accomplished solo artist, Apollo has been invited to perform for projects including J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No.2 with Ad Hoc Music as part of a fundraising initiative for the non-profit organization Coffee Connection. Apollo was the winner of the 2007 and 2008 Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts Concerto Competitions, subsequently performing the Trumpet Concerto by Malcolm Arnold and the Concerto for Two Trumpets in C Major by Antonio Vivaldi with the HKAPA Symphony Orchestra. In 2019, Apollo was awarded the prestigious Performer’s Certificate at the Eastman School of Music. Most recently, Apollo was invited to present his research at the 2021 International Trumpet Guild Conference, giving a lecture on cornet virtuoso Bohumir Kryl, and the implications of his recordings for rediscovering 19th-Century performance practices.

Apollo is a knowledgeable and experienced educator. He has presented masterclasses and lecture recitals at schools including Bucknell University and Nazareth College. Beginning in fall 2021, he joined the faculty of the University of Illinois Springfield as a trumpet instructor. Apollo was previously the Secondary Trumpet Lesson Instructor for the Eastman School of Music and the University of Rochester, and also worked as a Teaching Assistant for the trumpet studio at Eastman and for the Brass Department at the Boston Conservatory. While in Rochester he also served as trumpet faculty for the Hochstein School. During his time in Hong Kong, Apollo served as the adjunct trumpet instructor of the Education Institute of Hong Kong (now the Education University of Hong Kong). He was the band conductor and brass instructor at S.K.H. Bishop Baker Secondary School (Hong Kong), high brass instructor at Po Leung Kuk Lee Shing Pik College (Hong Kong) and Chinese Methodist School North Point (Hong Kong), and private trumpet instructor at Macau Youth Orchestra Association.

Apollo holds a Bachelor of Music (Honors) Degree and a Performance Diploma from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, a Graduate Performance Diploma from Boston Conservatory in Boston, MA, and a Masters of Music Degree in Trumpet Performance from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. He is currently a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Trumpet Performance and Literature at the Eastman School of Music. Apollo has studied with respected teachers including Professor James Thompson, Edward Hoffman, Steven Emery, Boyde Hood, Jonathan Clarke, Merrill Debski and Amos Lee.