EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
NEWTON
LEE
QUINCY JONES AND NEWTON LEE
Newton Lee, Executive Producer of the “I Am Not I” album by Liza Fox and Jus Grata, is no stranger to music. Lee dabbled with music composition before he studied computer programming. When he was in high school, he and his best friend would go to the Hong Kong Arts Centre every weekend to listen to hours of classical music.
He spent 10 years from 1996 to 2006 at The Walt Disney Company making children software and musical games. To celebrate the first anniversary of a Disney website, the Disney Online “Love Crew” wrote the song “Keep the Love Online” and chose Lee to be the lead rapper for the E. Huff and Puff Newton remix.
Although Lee majored in electrical engineering and computer science at Vincennes University and Virginia Tech, his songwriting hobby did not dwindle. As soon as he landed his first full-time job at AT&T Bell Laboratories, he bought a
As the editor-in-chief of ACM Computers in Entertainment, Lee interviewed music legend Quincy Jones, MP3 co-inventor Prof. Karlheinz Brandenburg, Tommy Boy Records and New Music Seminar co-founder Tom Silverman, and entertainment attorney
Roland synthesizer and hooked it up to his computer loaded with the best music composition software at the time.
Jay L. Cooper. “Music has a powerful effect on everybody: Children, adults, animals, plants, everything,” said Quincy Jones in his interview. “It’s, I think, one of the abstract miracles and phenomena. I’m glad I made up my mind to be in it a long time ago because you can’t see it, you can’t smell it, you can’t touch it, you can’t taste it, but you can feel it. It can just light up your whole soul.” Full transcripts of the four interviews were published in Lee’s 2014 book Digital Da Vinci: Computers in Music that encourages polymathic education and interdisciplinary studies in the digital age empowered by computer science.
As the founding president of Bell Labs’ Star Trek in the 20th Century Club, Lee produced the first-ever “Intergalactic Music Festival” to showcase international songs and cultural dances. Indeed, music abounds in the Star Trek universe: Leonard Nimoy wrote and performed the song “Maiden Wine” in the original episode “Plato’s Stepchildren,” and Mr. Spock played various musical instruments in “Charlie X,” “The Way to Eden,” and “Requiem For Methuselah.” In the 90’s, Lee co-developed Shari Lewis’ Lamp Chop Loves Music interactive game as well as five Disney’s Animated Storybooks: The Lion King, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, Pocahontas, Toy Story, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame – some of which were featured in the Billboard Magazine.
Since 2010, Lee has executive produced EDM and dance-pop songs that have charted on U.S. Billboard, U.K. Music Week, and U.S. iTunes HOT 100 (Electronic) as well as appeared on American Idol and Lifetime original movie Cheyenne. His personal musical taste is quite diverse – he enjoys listening to alternative, choral, classical, country, dance, electronic, opera, pop, R&B, rock, and world music.
INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATION, RESEARCH & SCHOLARSHIPS Lee is also the founding president of the California-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit Institute for Education, Research, and Scholarships (IFERS) which supports a diversity of educational projects through creative media including: 1. Liza Fox and Jus Grata’s “I Am Not I” album to raise awareness of bipolar disorder that affects 60 million people worldwide including 14 million Americans; 2. The High School Music Company project in association with Hollywood Global Change to make dreams happen for gifted high school students; 3. The UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) theme song “Get It Together” by Pau Gasol (LA Lakers 2008-2014) and Broshigeez (originally formed by apl.de.ap of the Black Eyed Peas);
4. The female director’s fight for education to raise tuition money for award-winning filmmaker and AFI student Destiny Thomas who escaped child abuse and neglect from a religious cult that treats women as second-class citizen; and 5. More than 2,800 library holdings of academic books including the Getting to Digital series “Disney Stories,” the Digital Da Vinci series “Computers in Music” and “Computers in the Arts and Sciences,” and the Total Information Awareness series “Facebook Nation” and “Counterterrorism and Cybersecurity.”
FULL TRANSCRIPTS OF THE FOUR INTERVIEWS OF LEGEND QUINCY JONES, MP3 CO-INVENTOR PROF. KARLHEINZ BRANDENBURG, TOMMY BOY RECORDS AND NEW MUSIC SEMINAR CO-FOUNDER TOM SILVERMAN, AND ENTERTAINMENT ATTORNEY JAY L. COOPER WERE PUBLISHED IN LEE’S 2014 BOOK DIGITAL DA VINCI: COMPUTERS IN MUSIC THAT ENCOURAGES POLYMATHIC EDUCATION AND INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES IN THE DIGITAL AGE EMPOWERED BY COMPUTER SCIENCE.
Established in 2004, IFERS is dedicated to improving society by providing resources to high achieving students, scientific researchers, community nonprofits, and educational organizations. For more information, visit
www.ifers.org
HOLLYWOOD WEEKLY 11