About Me
About Me
Originally from Sarnia, Canada, Ms. Lee has recently relocated to Northern California. She was based in Niagara, Canada for 17 years and led a very active musical life there.
During her music studies at Brock University (B. Mus. Hon. 1997), she studied voice, conducting, choral music and early music histories. She was the soprano soloist and assistant choir director at St. George’s Anglican Church in St. Catharines, and enjoyed a special working relationship with its organist/choirmaster/composer John Butler. Since 1992, she was an integral part of the award-winning Niagara Vocal Ensemble (Harris Loewen, director), a twelve-voice women’s group which performs regularly throughout the Niagara peninsula, Stratford and greater Toronto area; she also performed on their recording Voices of Niagara (1996), which features many Niagara-related composers including Robert Hunter Bell, Ronald Tremain, John Butler and Leila Lustig. The group released their Christmas CD entitled Voice of Niagara 2: A Niagara Noel in December 2009. Jody has also sung under the direction of Robert Cooper, as a member of Chorus Niagara. She studied with Tom Schilling, a New York based vocal coach at one of his Canadian studios.
1999 brought her a successful audition with the Opera Ontario Chorus, with which she performed in Faust, Eugene Onegin, Die Lustige Witwe, Elisir D’amore, La nozze di Figaro, Les pêcheurs des perles, Lakmé (English-speaking Canadian Premiere), La fille du regiment and Carmen. As a member of their Ambassador Choir, she enjoyed going to Hamilton-area schools promoting opera and performing for young students. She was 2004’s honoured recipient of the Christine Stanton Memorial Scholarship through Opera Ontario, awarded to promising singers. She has performed at such prestigious functions as the Kitchener Opera Ball and the re-opening of the Hamilton Art Gallery in conjunction with Opera Ontario. Her last Canadian concert appearances include being soloist with Brock University’s choirs, Niagara Vocal Ensemble, James Street Night of Art, the early music group Hildegals (Holly Gwynne-Timothy, director) and The Messiah with Choralis Camerata and the International Symphony Orchestra (Sarnia/Port Huron). Jody sang with Carmina Inc., a Washington DC area-based early music group from 2009 through 2014 under the direction of Vera Kochanowsky and Hubert Beckwith.
Summer of 2014, Lee and family relocated to Silicon Valley, and has settled in the Monterey Bay area. She has performed in ensemble and as soloist with I Cantori di Carmel, Hartnell Community Choir, VOCI, Madregalia and the Pastyme Consort, Monterey Peninsula College Chorus and is a valuable asset within the Carmel Bach Festival chorus. She is a professional section leader for both Hartnell Community Choir, and has volunteered with local artists for presentations by the esteemed operatic bass Louis Lebherz and renowned conductor Stewart Robertson. Jody now performance with Dr. Cyril Deaconoff's chamber ensemble, Voices of Silicon Valley.
Jody continues her studies with Robin McKee Williams, a noted Bay-area voice professional.
Soloist
2020
January 4 Madregalia TBA
January 25 Unitarian Universalist Church, Monterey
2019
December 24 (All Saints, Carmel
9pm Christmas Eve service)
December 22 Choral Artists of Carmel (All Saints, Carmel CA 4pm)
December 7&8, I Cantori di Carmel
(Carmel Mission Basilica, 8pm)
December 1, Voices of Silicon Valley
Memorial for Ghost Ship Fire
(Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, Oakland 4pm)
October 27, All Saints Carmel
10:30am service
July 2019
Carmel Bach Festival
With Festival Chorus
June 2 Hartnell Community Choir (Church of the Wayfarer, Carmel CA 3pm)
June 1, MadRegalia (First Presbyterian Church, Monterey CA 7:30pm)
May 30, Voices of Silicon Valley (ROOM Series, @ Royce Gallery, 2901 Mariposa Street, San Francisco CA 8pm)
May 5, I Cantori (All Saints, Carmel CA 7pm)
May 4, I Cantori (First United Methodist Church, Pacific Grove CA 3pm)
2018
December 22, Madregalia (Bethlehem Lutheran, Monterey CA 8:30pm)
December 16, Hartnell Community Choir (Church of the Wayfarer, Carmel-by-the-Sea CA 3pm)
December 15, Voices of Silicon Valley (Cathedral of St. Joseph Basilica, San Jose CA 7:30pm)
December 8&9, I Cantori di Carmel (Carmel Mission, Carmel-by-the-Sea CA 8pm)
December 2&3, Monterey Peninsula College Chorus
Ensemble
Voices of Silicon Valley December 2018 -
Carmel Bach Festival 2016 -
Choral Artists of Carmel 2015 -
Madregalia and the Pastyme Consort 2015 -
Monterey Peninsula College Chorus 2016 -
St. Dunstan's Episcopal, Carmel Valley 2016-2019
I Cantori di Carmel 2015 - 2018, 2019
VOCI 2016 - 2018
Carmina, Inc 2009-2014
Niagara Vocal Ensemble 1992-2009
St. George's Anglican Church, St. Catharines 1999 - 2009
Opera Ontario 2000-2004
Hildegals
Chorus Niagara
Brock University Choirs