Alysia Lee. Keynote Speaker

2019-2020 Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellow  

Lee’s full circle role as an artist, arts educator, teaching artist and arts advocate, gives her a broad perspective of the arts ecosystem. Alysia received national recognition for advancing access, equity, visibility, representation, and power-sharing between artists, organizations, and communities. Key to her methods are empowerment, partnership construction, and intersectional approaches to community exchange while centering anti-racism, creativity, and social justice.  

She is the Founder and Artistic Director of Sister Cities Girlchoir(SCG), the El Sistema-inspired, girl empowerment, choral academy in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey.  SCG has performed for audiences at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian Institute, The Kimmel Center, Citizens Bank Park, National Constitution Center, The Barnes Foundation, New Jersey Performing Arts Center and throughout their local communities. The girls cherish their recent performances with The Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Vijay Gupta, Opera Philadelphia, Westminster Choir College, and a host of community artists.   

Alysia Lee is the education program supervisor for Fine Arts education for the Maryland State Department of Education where she shares her vision of statewide equity and excellence across five arts disciplines: music, dance, visual arts, theatre, and media arts. She is a proud member of the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE). 

Alysia is a composer and her piece Say Her Name is published by Hal Leonard. 

Lee is a faculty member of Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. Additionally, she is a Board member of Chorus America.   

Recent recognitions include awards from The Kennedy Center, The Knight Foundation, National Association of University Women, Stockton Bartol Foundation, and Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.

Recent speaking/facilitation engagements include the U.S. Department of Education, The Kennedy Center, Americans for the Arts, Arts Education Partnership, Chorus America, Maryland Citizens for the Arts, Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, TEDX, Temple University, Towson University, Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia, and Baltimore Choral Arts.   

A Baltimore native, Lee is an alumna of Maryland public schools. She earned her graduate degree from Peabody Conservatory. In 2011, Lee was selected from an international pool of applicants to the third cohort of the Sistema Fellowship at New England Conservatory in partnership with TED. Alysia also completed Executive Education programs at Harvard University and La Salle University.