Mendel Lee is a composer and music performer/educator residing in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is currently the Assistant Director of Bands of Tulane University, the Director of the Green Wave Brass Band, and the founder and co-director of the nienteForte Contemporary Music Festival formed within Tulane University.
Mendel’s music has been commissioned by internationally renowned timpanist David Constantine of the President’s Own Marine Band, The Concert Singers (Los Angeles, CA), the Xavier University Symphonic Winds, Liminal Space Contemporary Ensemble (Houston, TX), the West Chester University Percussion Ensemble, the Portland Percussion Group, the nienteForte Collective (New Orleans, LA) and ECCE (Cambridge, MA). Additionally, his works have been performed by the Greater Portland Flute Society, the San Francisco Festival of Contemporary Music, Future Music Oregon (Eugene, OR), Hundredth Monkey Ensemble (Eugene, OR), and the Versipel New Music
Collective (New Orleans, LA), among others.
As a contemporary music performer, Mendel has performed as a pianist, percussionist, vocalist, and conductor for the Hundredth Monkey Ensemble, the Versipel New Music Collective, and the nienteForte Collective. He has also served as a guest performer/conductor for the West Chester University Percussion Ensemble, the Oregon Percussion Ensemble, Ensemble 504, and Ensemble Pamplemousse.
Mendel is an Innovative Percussion Educational Artist whose experience as a member of the West Chester University Marching Band and the Crossmen Drum and Bugle Corps and as an instructor with the WGI independent group Elite Percussion and the World Class Drum and Bugle Corps Jersey Surf and Glassmen has helped him build success as an award-winning marching band and drumline arranger whose creative designs have been performed by numerous high schools, colleges, and independent marching organizations based throughout the United States. In his debut year as the creative designer for the Hermiston High School Marching Band based out of Hermiston, OR, his
show design helped them earn placement in their circuit finals for the first time in their program’s decades-long history. During his tenure with the Tulane University Marching Band, he has helped coordinate logistics for their performances in high-profile national events and television coverage including the 2009 New Orleans Saints Superbowl Victory Parade, the 2011 Wheel of Fortune College Week, the 2013 Fox and Friends Super Bowl Week broadcast, and CBS’s critically-acclaimed NCIS: New Orleans during the 2015 Mardi Gras season.
Mendel has also served as an adjudicator and clinician for the Worldstrides Heritage Performance Programs as a part of their festivals in New Orleans, LA, and Nashville, TN, as well as for the Louisiana Marching Band Circuit and the Louisiana-Mississippi Color Guard and Percussion Circuit. In his spare time (yes, he has spare time), Mendel is an amateur poker player and a member of the Poker Player Alliance, cashing in 8th place in 2009 and 1st place in 2011 of the Pot Limit Omaha tournament of the Winter Bayou Poker Challenge held in Harrah's New Orleans, and he is a registered minister of the Universal Life Church whose ability to foster a personable and memorable wedding
experience has given him demand as a wedding officiant in Louisiana, Oregon, and Hawaii.