Keri Lee Pierson is a classically trained soprano, contemporary musician, and music educator. She now serves as the voice professor at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, MI. She is completing her Doctor of Musical Arts in Contemporary Music at Bowling Green State University where she collaborates regularly with her colleagues and instructors and performs frequently with The MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music.
Planning interesting and audience involved events, with a lean towards contemporary chamber music is Keri Lee‘s primary focus. As a solo performer, she has prepared works by composers such as John Adams, Meredith Monk, Georges Aperghis, Giancinto Scelsi, Alex Temple, and more. In 2017 she and her now husband founded their voice and guitar duo, Deux Saisons. Their mission is: to bring classical music to a wide community through integration into diverse venues (such as farms, libraries, breweries and the main stage), to incorporate audience participation, and to apply music as a tool for education and restoration. Keri Lee continues to commission works and collaborate with living composers on solo voice, voice and electronics, voice and guitar and other chamber works. Her duo’s current project involves commissioning new works from composers Christopher Cerrone, Akshaya Avril Tucker, and Pablo Gómez-Estévez.
Keri Lee has presented events and concerts throughout the United States and in Europe. She has been a part of the Bang-on-a-Can Summer Festival Mass MOCA, performing multiple times over the 3 weeks, working with composers, and performing at LOUD Weekend with many amazing musicians. On March 8, 2025 (International Women’s Day) Keri Lee will be presenting her 3rd concert of all female composers at the Timucua Arts Foundation. For this concert, she is collaborating with Central Florida composer ChanJi Kim on a new chamber opera for soprano and piano. She has been a part of two “15-Minutes of Fame” calls for scores with Vox Novus in NYC. Keri Lee has performed for the MACCM New Music Festival, Nief-Norf Summer Festival, BGSU’s Praecepta, FreshInc. Festival, the Romanza Festivale, Groupmuse, the Cortona Sessions for New Music, Yo Me Quedo en Casa, Wired Music, the Brookfield Community Partnership in VT, the At Home Artists Project, various concerts & events at the University of South Carolina and the University of Central Florida, and at different local venues and churches. She also maintains an active profile on Fiverr.com
For 2021-22, Keri Lee was awarded two grants from the Florida Department of State for her voice and guitar duo, Deux Saisons, to tour in St. Johns County Public Libraries and schools. In May of 2022, she performed at multiple concerts and presented on interactive performances at the 8th International Conference on Music and Minimalism. In 2020, during the Covid-19 Pandemic, her duo performed in many virtual concerts, as well as prepared and produced an all-premiers concert for voice & guitar called DUSK to DAWN. She has created two award-winning interactive performances with Deux Saisons titled Music & Meditation, and iPlay: An Audience Perspective on New Music. A few more unique performances have been hosting a music and wine pairing event, and a once in a lifetime opportunity in 2015 of singing with the Rolling Stones. Keri Lee played a Street Singer and had solos in Opera at USC’s production of Leonard Bernstein’s MASS in 2018. In 2015, she helped raise awareness and plan an open discussion at UCF with composer Eric Whitacre.
Keri Lee has given presentations and masterclasses on music entrepreneurial skills and composing for the voice at Bowling Green State University, with the Bowling Green Arts Council, as an alumna of University of South Carolina, and as an alumna of University of Central Florida, and has been a part of two residencies at Interlochen Center for the Arts. Keri Lee lived and performed in the beautiful Saint Augustine, Florida, where she was an Adjunct Instructor at Flagler College. In addition to collegiate work, she has experience as a K-6 music teacher, a staff musician at various churches, directing youth choruses, and has kept a private studio for all ages and skill levels.
Keri Lee holds a Master’s in Vocal Performance from the University of South Carolina, and a Bachelor’s in Vocal performance from the University of Central Florida. She has studied voice with mezzo-soprano Katherine Pracht Phares and soprano Dr. Jane Schoonmaker-Rodgers at BGSU, mezzo-soprano Rachel Calloway at South Carolina, tenor Dr. Jeremy Hunt at Central Florida and Miss Ohio 1975 Susan Banks Ward prior to college. She also worked with composers Dr. Marilyn Shrude and Dr. Piyawat Louilarpprasert, musicologist Dr. Ryan Ebright, ethnomusicologist Dr. Katherine Meizel, previous SPARK Director & oboist Dr. Rebecca Nagel, opera director Ellen Shlaefer, and choir directors Dr. Gary Wyatt, Dr. Alicia Walker, Dr. Kelly Miller, and Dr. David Brunner.
Beyond music, Keri Lee has been a part of her communities through local organizations. She stays involved with her local and state arts councils, and served as the Outreach & Fundraising Chair of the Saint Augustine Community Choir Board of Directors and the Communications Chair of the Jacksonville UCF Alumni Chapter while living in St. Augustine. Having band as a major part of her music history, Keri Lee is a brother of Kappa Kappa Psi and has held leadership positions in her home chapter Eta Sigma.
Although an active performer, Keri Lee also has interests in entrepreneurship and community engagement, music cognition and musicology.
