written in 1986 to honor the founding of Wilmington, Delaware. (Kalmar Nyckel was the name of the ship that first carried the original settlers from Sweden to what would become Wilmington.) In 1994 Echoes of Normandy was commissioned by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landings. His 1998 Piano Trio no. 2, "Silent Voices" was written in Palm Springs. Lees received a Grammy nomination for Kalmar Nyckel in 2003, following release of a recording by the German orchestra Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz under Stephen Gunzenhauser. He lost to Dominick Argento. Personal life Lees married Luba Leatrice Banks in 1948. They had one daughter. Lees donated his archive of manuscripts, sketches, scores, letters, photographs, articles, recordings and posters to Yale University. Shortly before his death at age 86, he emailed that he was, "busy as fleas in a circus". He died in Glen Cove, New York. Awards and honors 1953: Fromm Foundation Award 1954: Guggenheim Fellowship 1955: Copley Medal 1956: Fulbright Fellowship 1958: UNESCO Award, Sir Arnold Bax Society Medal 1966: Guggenheim Fellowship 1985: Lancaster Symphony Orchestra's Composer's Award 2003: Grammy Nomination National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity. Discography String Quartets Nos. 1, 5 and 6 (Naxos) Complete Violin Works of Benjamin Lees (Albany) Concerto for French Horn and Orchestra (New World) Violin Sonata No. 2 (Polystone) Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (VoxBox, EPR) Prologue, Capriccio and Epilog (CRI) Symphonies No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5, Etudes for Piano & Orchestra (Albany) Symphony No. 4: Memorial Candles (Naxos) Concerto No. 2 for Piano & Orchestra (Albany) Concerto No. 1 for Piano & Orchestra (Pierian) Piano Trio No. 2: Silent Voices (Albany) Passacaglia for Orchestra (Delos) Piano Sonata No. 4, Mirrors, Fantasy Variations (Albany) Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra (conducted by Igor Buketoff) References O'Loughlin, Niall. "Lees, Benjamin". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001), 29 vols. . Notes External links Personal Page Magazine Article Benjamin Lees @ Boosey & Hawkes Interview with Benjamin Lees by Bruce Duffie, June 13, 1987 , WNCN-FM, September 9, 1984 1924 births 2010 deaths American male classical composers American classical composers Chinese people of Russian-Jewish descent Chinese emigrants to the United States American people of Russian-Jewish descent Musicians from Palm Springs, California Musicians from Harbin Pupils of George Antheil 20th-century classical composers