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Lee Bracegirdle has held positions as principal horn in orchestras on three continents, spanning more than three decades. His career as a composer began in 1998 as winner of the Kodaly Composers' Competition (Chicago), which led to numerous commissions and requests for new works from his orchestral colleagues. Since 2008 his compositions have been published by C.F. Peters. As a conductor he trained at Salzburg's Mozarteum and he now conducts orchestras in Australia and Latin America.

A native of Philadelphia, he began studying keyboard and various wind instruments, settling with the French horn at age 14. His tertiary studies were at the Philadelphia Musical Academy and the Juilliard School in New York, earning BM and MM degrees. Among his mentors at Juilliard who influenced his compositional style were the composers Pierre Boulez, Vincent Persichetti, Jacob Druckman and Robert Starer.

In 1976-77 he was co-principal horn with Mexico's Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM and principal horn with the México City Chamber Orchestra. In 1977 he was appointed solo horn with the Hof Symphony Orchestra in Bavaria, where he co-founded Germany's premier brass quintet, Rekkenze Brass.

He became Associate Principal Horn with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 1980, where he retired in 2012. 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 his original studies and brass chamber music are published by 3-C Musikverlag in Bochum, Germany. He has given horn masterclasses in conservatoria in Europe and in North and South America.

From 1990-1992 he studied conducting with Michael Gielen at the Salzburg Mozarteum, took part in masterclasses with Sergiu Celibidache, and made his conducting debut in 1991 with the Orchestra of the Mozarteum. Since 1996 he has been musical director of the Australian Chamber Ballet. He was Chief Conductor of the Woollahra Philharmonic from 2017-2020, and became Honorary Musical Director of Cuba's Orquesta Sinfónica de Oriente in 2020.

He was awarded an honorary diploma for composition by the Chicago-based Kodaly Academy, and was subsequently commissioned by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra for three new works: Variations for Orchestra, Ammerseelieder and Euphonium Concerto. Further compositions requested by his orchestral colleagues have been: Passacaglia and Gigues (for double-bass and chamber orchestra), Violin Concerto, Clarinet Concerto, and Concertino for Viola and Orchestra. In 2007 the American Wind Symphony Orchestra commissioned and premiered Threnos for horn and symphonic winds, and in 2014 the SSO premiered his Legends of the Old Castle with Louise Johnson as solo harpist. His Violin Concerto was premiered in 2015 with SSO concertmaster Michael Dauth as soloist. In 2023 he conducted the world premiere of his Triptych for saxophone and orchestra in Cuba.

He was composer in residence at Bundanon in 2003 and 2013, and at the Brahmshaus in Baden-Baden, Germany, in 2012 and 2014.

Lee Bracegirdle — current to July 2025