Ming-cho LEE was born in Shanghai.  After a short stay in Hong Kong, he went to the United States where he completed his undergraduate studies at Occidental College and undertook postgraduate work in the Theatre Arts Department of the University of California in Los Angeles.  In 1962, he designed his first Broadway production which launched his long and illustrious career.  He is regarded as one of the most distinguished and artistically influential stage designers in America today.

Mr Lee’s extensive credits cover the full spectrum of the performing arts.  He has worked with several leading dance companies, including Martha Graham, American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, Eliot Feld Ballet, José Limón, and Pacific Northwest Ballet.  From 1962 through 1973, he was the principal designer for the New York Shakespeare Festival.  He has designed sets for major opera companies, such as the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and San Francisco Opera.  He has also designed for theatre groups including Arena Stage in Washington DC, Mark Taper Forum, Guthrie Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and the Manhattan Theatre Club.

Internationally, Mr Lee has designed productions for the Royal Opera at Covent Garden in London, the State Opera of Hamburg, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Royal Danish Ballet and Cloud Gate Dance Theatre in Taipei.  He was invited by the Urban Council to design Offenbach’s opera Les Contes d’Hoffmann for the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in 1991.

His numerous awards and distinctions include a Tony Award, New York Drama Desk Award, and New York and Los Angeles Outer Circle Critics Awards.  As an architectural theatre consultant, Mr Lee designed for Joseph Papp’s Public Theatre and the State University of New York at Purchase.  Currently, Mr Lee is Professor of Design and Chair of the Design Department at Yale University’s School of Drama.

Mr President, in recognition of his accomplishments as a distinguished designer and his contributions as a dedicated design educationist, I have the honour to present to you for the award of Fellowship of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Mr Ming-cho Lee.