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Lee Bracegirdle began his early musical training in Philadelphia, where he studied keyboard and various wind instruments, settling with the French horn at the age of 14. He began his tertiary musical studies at the Philadelphia Musical Academy (1970 – 1971) specialising in horn and organ. He was then accepted into the Juilliard School in New York as a horn student in the class of James Chambers, earning a BM (1975) and MM (1976).

In 1976 he won the positions of co–principal horn with the Orquesta Filarmónica de la Unam (México) and principal horn with the Chamber Orchestra of México City. In 1977 he was appointed solo horn with the Hof Symphony Orchestra in Bavaria, where he subsequently co–founded Germany's premier brass quintet, Rekkenze Brass.

Bracegirdle was awarded the position of Associate Principal Horn with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 1980. He has made numerous recordings for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as a soloist, chamber musician and principal horn. He has edited horn studies for the I.M.C. in New York, and published his own original horn studies and chamber music through 3–C Musikverlag in Bochum, Germany. He has given horn master classes in conservatoria in Salzburg, New York, Vienna, and various universities in North and South America.

In 1990 he was accepted into the conducting class at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and made his conducting debut in 1990 with the Mozarteum Orchestra. Since 1996 he has been musical director of the Australian Chamber Ballet, where he is also composer–in–residence. His original scores for this ensemble include the ballets Eat Pianist and Prometheus and Pandora.

Bracegirdle was awarded first prize in the 1998 Zoltan Kodály International Composers' Competition for his first orchestral work, Divertimento for Orchestra. This award earned him an honorary diploma from the Kodály Academy and Institute in Chicago.

In 2003 he was selected by the Bundanon Foundation as composer–in–residence. In June 2007, the American Wind Symphony Orchestra premiered and recorded for their AWSO CD label his Threnos for Horn and Symphonic Winds. His orchestral works premiered by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Variations for Orchestra (2002), Ammerseelieder (2005), and Concerto for Euphonium and Orchestra (2008) are published by C.F. Peters, New York.

Biography provided by the composer — current to April 2009