Ray Leslee is an award-winning composer and pianist. His music for the theatre has been produced by Playwrights Horizons, Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, The Vienna Chamber Opera, New York Theatre Workshop, The Folger Shakespeare Library, The Kennedy Center, The Acting Company, Dallas Theatre Center, The Guthrie, and Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, to name a few.

For the concert hall, he has received commissions from The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, The Morgan Library & Museum, The National Symphony of Ukraine, The New Haven Symphony Orchestra, The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the Eleo Pomare Dance Company, among others.

Ray has also served as a staff pianist with Dance Theatre of Harlem, Juilliard, Joffrey, Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, Complexions, and Marymount Manhattan College. His honors include the Richard Rodgers Award, Philadelphia’s Barrymore Award, and the Los Angeles Ovation Award (both for Best Musical “Avenue X”), as well as a Fellowship in Music Composition from the New York Foundation for the Arts. He is currently working on a new musical titled “Maya Songs,” featuring the poetry of Maya Angelou.