Biography

“Lee Curreri is the reason I got my first keyboard.” –Hans Zimmer, Academy Award-winning composer.

Composer, music producer and keyboardist LEE CURRERI became an international sensation as the star of the acclaimed motion picture and television series, Fame. Playing the intense keyboard prodigy Bruno, a role that closely matched his own background and abilities, Lee was also involved in the music for the long-running series. A native of New York, Lee studied his craft at the Manhattan School of Music, Mannes College of Music, and Westchester Conservatory prior to being cast by director Alan Parker for Fame. The television series brought Lee to Los Angeles where his personal take on pop, jazz, and classical styles put him in demand to score for a number of other television projects when he wasn’t on the set or in the recording studio. He produced Natalie Cole on her Good to be Back album. The success of that project led to Lee going on to produce a host of artists, including Nicolette Larson, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Jon Hassel, and Phil Perry. While in the studio producing records, Lee continued to compose for film and television, as well as to play keyboards and synthesizers for many other artists. He scored a number of episodes of David E Kelly’s highly-rated series Chicago Hope and the premiere episode of Robert Altman’s acclaimed anthology series, Gun. Through his close association with Hans Zimmer’s Media Ventures, Lee was introduced to producer Jerry Bruckheimer and became the composer for the Simpson/Bruckheimer series Dangerous Minds and SOF. Lee’s reputation as a cutting-edge contemporary writer brought him back into commercials and he composed spots for high profile national campaigns for Microsoft Network, Turner Broadcasting and Toyota. Collaborating with some of his favorite artists, Lee composed and produced the first full-length album of his own original music, the transcendental rhythmic-soul project Aquabox, which has aptly been tagged, The Evolution Will Not Be Televised. Every once in a while, Lee gets to lend his arranging and playing skills to his childhood idols, among them, the great Carole King – he had the privilege of arranging a version of the Chanukah Prayer for Carole’s A Holiday Carole album – he also played piano (along with Carole) and played trumpet, flugelhorn, and trombone. Lee continues to enjoy playing keyboards live in different bands, his favorite being a band in Sicily called Mode.