Alysia Lee,
FOUNDER & Artistic Director

BIO
2020 Kennedy Center Citizen Artist, Alysia Lee’s multi-facted role as an artist, arts educator, teaching artist, and youth advocate, gives her a broad perspective of the arts ecosystem. Alysia's work has received national recognition for advancing access, equity, visibility, representation, and power-sharing between artists, organizations, and communities. Key to her method is leadership development, building strong partnerships, and intersectional approaches to engagement while centering on artistic expression, creativity, justice, and belonging.

She is the Founder and Artistic Director of Sister Cities Voices (SCV), the El Sistema-inspired, youth empowerment, choral academy with programming in Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey. Lee provided strategic oversight of the program's growth from the 20-participant pilot to 300+ members.

Recent recognitions include The Kennedy Center, The Knight Foundation, Stockton Bartol Rush Foundation, National Association of University Women and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. Recent speaking/writing engagements include Carnegie Hall, VH1 Save the Music, The Kennedy Center, Arts Education Partnership, Chorus America, Americans for the Arts, Maryland Citizens for the Arts, Maryland Music Educators Association, Maryland Theatre Educators Association, and TEDX.

A Baltimore native, Lee is an alumna of Maryland schools, including George Washington Carver Center for Arts & Technology. She received a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina School for the Arts and a 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. Alysia also completed Executive Education programs at Harvard University and La Salle University. alysialee.com