1. Born in Wheeling, West Virginia, Lee began playing the violin when he was 8 years old.
2. Even though Lee was earning accolades for his career, racism was unfortunately always a constraint, although “he refused to let it define his work.”
3. Lee created the Cosmopolitan Little Symphony, “an integrated ensemble that rehearsed at Harlem’s Grace Congregational Church.”
4. Lee ultimately expatriated in 1957, and his career flourished in Germany, Colombia, and Sweden, where he became the Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra’s music director.
5. Lee eventually “fulfilled a dream of conducting the New York Philharmonic on the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” in 1976
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