Lee Joiner joined the Conservatory faculty as Assistant Professor of Violin in 1983 following a year of doctoral studies at Eastman School of Music, and five years as a member of the Blair String Quartet. His responsibilities at the Conservatory include serving as the chair of string studies and teaching violin, chamber music, and string literature. In his years in the Chicago area, he has performed with many groups, including the Contemporary Chamber Players at the University of Chicago, the Lyric Opera, Ars Viva, Rembrandt Chamber Players, Orion Ensemble, Fulcrum Point, Soli Deo Gloria and the Madison Wisconsin Bach Musicians Baroque Orchestra.

He has been featured on tour with both the Glazunov and Menotti Violin Concertos. In the 2014-15 season he was featured in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante. He has served as concertmaster for many performances on campus under the direction of conductor John Nelson and he also performs regularly on the Faculty Recital Series. Dr. Joiner and colleague Howard Whitaker are known on the Wheaton College campus as improvisers that bring music to various settings in the college life.

A continuing interest has been the study of works for solo violin. This passion has led to the performance of annotated recitals that trace the development of solo writing. He has had the privilege of coaching solo works with composers Vincent Persichetti and Shulamit Ran. In two visits to Memorial University in St. John’s Newfoundland he gave performances and presentations on solo violin repertoire. Earlier, he had the opportunity to perform several works by the notable American composer Roy Harris in collaboration with his wife Johanna, the distinguished Canadian pianist.

His interest in early literature for violin has more recently led him to begin performing on a baroque violin and assembling a collection of bows that coincide with the repertoire. In the summer, he has most recently been on the faculty of Credo Chamber Music, and in the past has taught at the Rocky Ridge Music Center, the Masterworks Festival, and Music in Summer in Ontario, Canada.

At the initiation of two former students, he and three others formed the 3 + 1 String Quartet in the fall of 2018.  They play a wide range of repertoire stylistically, with the three upper strings rotating between violin and viola. They will venture into jazz in the fall of 2019 when they will perform with the Chilean singer Camila Meza at the Chicago Jazz Festival.

Eastman School of Music
D.M.A. music

Julliard School of Music
M.M. music

Juilliard School of Music
B.M. music

• Classical music recording
• Chamber music
• Violin
• String Music
• String Literature

Lee Joiner | Instruments Old and New: Teaching Violin at Wheaton

On this episode of Inside Wheaton, host Greg Wheatley interviews Associate Professor of Music Dr. Lee Joiner. They discuss Dr. Joiner's work in the Conservatory, particularly with the string program, as well as Lee's interest in early music practices and what these mean for music performance.

Lee Joiner | Performing Johann Georg Pisendel and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson