Cynthia Cozette Lee facts for kids

Cynthia Cozette Lee, also known as Cynthia Cozette or Nazik Cynthia Cozette, was born on October 19, 1953, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is an amazing African-American classical music composer and a writer of opera stories (called librettist). Cynthia Cozette made history as the first African-American woman to earn a Master of Arts degree in music composition from the University of Pennsylvania. She was also the first African-American woman at the University of Pennsylvania to study music composition with famous American composers George Crumb and George Rochberg.

Cynthia Cozette Lee's Early Life and School

Cynthia Cozette Lee comes from a family with a rich history. Her great-grandfather, Warren Garner, was an African slave who bravely fought in the American Civil War. He was part of the 4th Regiment Infantry of the United States Colored Troops.

Cynthia started her music journey at a young age. When she was 8 years old, she began learning to play the piano. Her first piano teacher was Carmen Rummo, a professor at Duquesne University. At 10, she started playing the flute. She had excellent flute teachers, including Alois Hrabak and Bernard Goldberg, who both played for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. In 1969, she won the Victor Saudek Flute Award, which allowed her to study with Bernard Goldberg.

Cynthia began composing music when she was 16. Her first composition teacher was Joseph Willcox Jenkins, a music professor at Duquesne University. She won an honorable mention in the Pittsburgh Flute Club Composition Contest in 1969, and her prize was to have lessons with Jenkins.

She went to Jacksonville University from 1971 to 1973, where William Hoskins was one of her music composition teachers. Then, she attended Carnegie Mellon University from 1973 to 1975. In 1975, she performed her senior recital with Gary Chang, another music student. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Music Composition from Carnegie Mellon University that same year. Her teachers there included Leonardo Balada and Roland Leich.

Cynthia continued her studies at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1977 with a Master of Arts Degree in Music Composition. During this time, she learned from George Crumb and George Rochberg. From 1977 to 1978, she studied music copying at the Juilliard School of Music with Arnold Arnstein, who was the personal music copyist for famous composers like Leonard Bernstein. Later, she earned a Master of Public Administration Degree from Rutgers University in 2005 and a doctorate degree in Educational Leadership from Rowan University in 2009.

Cynthia Cozette Lee's Music Style

From the very start, Cynthia Cozette's music was inspired by French impressionistic composers like Debussy and Ravel. These composers created music that often sounded dreamy and focused on mood and atmosphere. Her musical training connects back to Johannes Brahms, a very famous composer, through her teachers Roland Leich and George Rochberg.

Cynthia's African-American heritage has a big influence on the themes she chooses for her music. She wrote two short operas, Adea and The Black Guitar, in 1982. However, it was hard for her to get her works published or recorded. She also started working on an opera about her great-grandfather, who fought in the Civil War. She has written music for voices, small groups of instruments (chamber music), and full orchestras.

Cynthia Cozette has won national awards for her compositions. Her piece called Nigerian Treasures for Solo Unaccompanied Flute won a College Music Society Composition Award in 1985. This piece was first performed at a conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, in November 1985.

While many of her original music compositions haven't been published, over 45 of her vocal, instrumental, and operatic works are registered with the Library of Congress. This includes her collaborations with her sister, Hazel Ann Lee, on art songs, operas, and two musicals called Secretaries and Slavery.

On April 15, 2023, one of Cynthia Cozette's art songs, The Wake, was performed for the first time in Paris, France. It was part of her Doctor's Song Cycle. The Orchestre Symphonique du Loiret played the music, and finalists from the Afrique Lyrique Opera 2nd Competition sang the song.

Cynthia Cozette Lee's Productions

From 1982 to 1984, Cynthia Cozette had her own classical music radio show called Classical Reflections on WPEB Public Radio. On her show, African-American classical musicians in Philadelphia could talk about their lives and their music. She also helped promote African-American classical musicians by working as a classical music consultant for a weekly radio show called The Marketplace from 1976 to 1977.

In 2001, she produced and performed her own one-woman show, Songs I Wrote For Broadway, at the Women of Color Festival in New York.

Cynthia Cozette Lee's Writings

Cynthia Cozette also enjoys writing. She started writing poetry, fiction, and non-fiction essays in 2000.

• Lee, C.C. (2020). The Forgotten Schoolhouse: Original Poems and Stories on Faith, Love, Nature and Wonder.
• Lee. C.C. (2014). Native American Music and Living Legends.
• Lee, C. (2010). D.O.O.R.S. of Change: Capacity Building to Differentiated Instruction.
• Lee, C. (November, 2000). Build a bias-free classroom.

Selected Musical Works

Cynthia Cozette Lee has composed many different types of musical pieces.

Operas

• ADEA Opera in One Act and Three Scenes
• The Black Guitar (La Guitarra Negra)
• Partway To Freedom

Orchestral Music

• Ebony Reflections for chamber orchestra (for a small orchestra)
• Concerto for piano and orchestra (a piece for piano and orchestra)
• The Martyr for baritone and orchestra (for a male singer and orchestra)
• The Wake for solo voice (all ranges) and string orchestra (for a single singer and an orchestra made of string instruments)

Chamber Music

• Nigerian Treasures for solo unaccompanied flute (for one flute without other instruments)
• Pittsburgh Memoirs in 4 Movements for flute trio (for three flutes)
• Rivers: An African Tribute in 3 movements for solo unaccompanied flute
• The Steps of the Art Museum Three Poems for the piano (for piano)
• Paris String Quartet (for a group of four string instruments)
• Sweets for 4 Flutes in 3 Movements for flute quartet (for four flutes)

Vocal and Choral Music

• Colors for Women’s Chorus and Percussion Ensemble (for a women's choir and percussion instruments)
• Las Canciones de Puerto Rico for SATB choir (for a mixed choir of sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses)
• Make A Joyful Noise for SATB choir
• The Doctor’s Song Cycle for soprano, voice and piano (for a soprano singer, another voice, and piano)

Musicals

• Secretaries
• Slavery Year 3000
• Songs I Wrote for Broadway, a Musical Review