Jon Lee

Jon D. Lee is an active performer, educator, clinician and adjudicator.  On faculty at SMU Meadows School of the Arts since 1995, he has been the director of the Meadows Percussion Ensemble since 2001. An enthusiastic supporter of new music, he has directed numerous world premieres including Lane Harder’s Circus Plenus Clamor Ingens Ianuea Tensae, Duruflé Variations, Carey, Whispered Interiors and La Razon del Viaje, Anne Strickland’s Fascinating Notions, Kevin Hanlon’s Kickin’ It, Jenny Olivia Johnson’s I Refuse to Mourn, G. Bradley Bodine’s Namaste: Concerto for Marimba and Percussion Ensemble, and Robert X. Rodriguez’s Xochiquetzal.

Lee was the principal timpanist of the Garland Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Arlington and Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra for 20 years. He has performed with the Dallas Winds, Wichita Falls Symphony Orchestra, Lawton Symphony Orchestra, Lewisville Lake Symphony Orchestra, Plano Symphony Orchestra, East Texas Symphony, The Voices of Change, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Casa Manana, Garland Summer Musicals and many others. 

At SMU, Lee also teaches percussion techniques and is the drumline instructor-arranger for the SMU Mustang Band. In addition to his responsibilities at Meadows, Lee maintains a thriving private studio of 50 percussion students in Plano, Texas. His students have excelled at all levels and have been accepted into the finest music schools in the world, including the Meadows School of the Arts, University of North Texas, Indiana University, New England Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music and The Juilliard School.

Lee has been on the faculty of The University of Texas at Arlington, the Stephen F. Austin Percussion Symposium, Marimba Madness, and the Leigh Howard Stevens Pre-College Marimba Seminar. He is a member of the Percussive Arts Society and the Texas Music Educators Association. Lee holds a B.M. degree from the University of North Texas and an M.M. degree from the Meadows School of the Arts at SMU and has done post-graduate work at the University of North Texas. Lee is a Master Educator endorser with Malletech, Inc.