Keith Gates: Music

Lee Harper, originally from Hickory, North Carolina, attended the Juilliard School of Music and graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts with a BFA Degree in Dance. She performed professionally with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Pearl Lang Dance Company, All Nations Dance Company, and the Atlanta Contemporary Dance Company. Ms. Harper, a recipient of two choreography fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the 1987 Mayor's Fellowship in the Arts for Choreography, was on the staff of the Northside School of the Arts for four years. Having been in the original cast of Leonard Bernstein's MASS, which opened the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., Ms. Harper has choreographed productions of MASS for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (under the direction of Robert Shaw), Northside School of the Arts, and Duke University. Since 1978, Ms. Harper has choreographed and performed for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's "Symphony Steet" programs and for the last fifteen years she has choreographed and performed for the Symphony's annual Halloween and "Kid's Holiday" programs. She has also choreographed productions of "Ceremony of Carols", Peter and the Wolf, Carnival of the Animals, Hansel and Gretel, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Polar Express, The Snowman, The Creation of the World, Second Chance Christmas, for the Symphony's Family Concert Series, and a A Little Night Music for the Alliance Theatre. She founded her school and dance company, "Lee Harper & Dancers" in 1980, and has choreographed over thirty works for her adult dance company since the Company's beginnings. In 1992, she premiered her solo dance concert, Hurdles, which has been performed in Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. She has choreographed productions of Manon, Rigoletto, Samson and Delilah, Otello, Macbeth, The Pearlfishers, and The Marriage of Figaro for the Atlanta Opera. Ms. Harper, who performs regularly as a liturgical dancer at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, has been an Artist-in-Residence at Woodward Academy since 1992. Ms. Harper is married to Attorney Wayne Vason and is the proud mom of Katie and Fin. She was selected by WABE to be a "Lexus Leader of the Arts" for 2002.