LeeLee Hunter was initially introduced to music, though somewhat reluctantly, through her enrollment in the church choir at the age of four; however, she grew to love it very quickly. Ms. Hunter first experienced the guitar while living in Hong Kong when her third grade teacher would play for them everyday at the end of school. She began taking lessons while living in Hong Kong and continued when she moved back to the US. Ms Hunter received her Bachelor's degree in 2011 and her Master's degree in 2013 from the Peabody Conservatory under the guidance of Julian Gray; she is currently pursuing a PhD in Musicology at the University of Arizona under the advisement of Dr. Jay Rosenblatt and Dr. Matthew Mugmon, and has held a graduate teaching assistantship since 2018.

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Her teacher, Bill Dykes, first introduced Ms. Hunter to the Classical guitar and she quickly fell in love with the complexities of that genre of guitar. She studied with Mr. Dykes for seven years. In high school, she continued her studies with Berta Rojas-a concert artist and former student of Manuel Barrueco-until she began at Peabody in the fall of 2007. In addition to the guitar Ms. Hunter also studied voice and clarinet while in high school and was an active member of her school band and chorus as well as the choir and hand-bell choir at her church.

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Ms. Hunter has made solo appearances at the Cincinnati Guitar Workshop and with the McLean High School Orchestra in Heitor Villa-Lobos’s “Bachianas Brasileiras.” She has also performed in master-classes with Ken Meyer of Syracuse University; Stanley Yates; Lorenzo Micheli and Matteo Mela of the Italian duo Soloduo; Bruce Holzman of Florida State University; Carlos Perez; Zoran Dukic; Pepe Romero; Judicael Perroy; Margarita Escapra; Sergio Assad; and David Russell. Ms. Hunter has also particapted in multiple competitions including the Guitar Foundation of America International Artists Competition, the Indiana International Guitar Competition, the Guitar Masters International Competition, the Beeston Memorial Competition, the David Russell Bach Prize, and the Sholin Memorial Competition. Ms. Hunter has presented her research on African-American spirituals at the annual meeting of the Society for Christian Scholarship in Music and the Graduate Student Conference at the University of Arizona.

    

In her spare time, when she’s not playing the guitar, Ms. Hunter enjoys going out with her friends, paddling around in her kayak, hitting a few golf balls, catching an opera or a show, or sometimes just watching a movie with her cat, Skittles.