Quentin Oliver Lee

Quentin Oliver Lee (January 28, 1988 – December 1, 2022) was an American stage actor and operatic baritone whose Broadway credits included Caroline, or Change, Prince of Broadway, The Phantom of the Opera, and Porgy and Bess. Born and raised in San Bernardino, California, Lee later relocated to Arizona to attend Northern Arizona University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in vocal performance in 2012. During his time at NAU, he taught at the Flagstaff School of Music, sang as a soloist and choir member with the Shrine of the Ages choir — performing with that ensemble in South Africa, at Carnegie Hall in New York, and at multiple ACDA conferences — and held membership in both the Cardinal Key Honor Society and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. His early operatic roles at NAU included the title character in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, Sid in Britten's Albert Herring, and Belcore in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore.

After graduating, Lee moved to New York City, where he performed in subway stations to support himself, frequently as part of The Opera Collective for Music Under New York. A casting agent for Gershwin's Porgy and Bess heard him singing in the subway and encouraged him to audition; he secured a role in the production and made his Broadway debut. In 2014, he performed as Ben in Menotti's The Telephone at the New York Lyric Opera's Summer Festival. His operatic work with the New York Lyric Opera Theater encompassed a range of roles, including Antonio in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Pandolfe in Massenet's Cendrillon, Giuseppe in The Gondoliers, Raimondo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Schaunard in Puccini's La bohème, and Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen. He also appeared in I Am Harvey Milk at Avery Fisher Hall.

Lee's Broadway career spanned 2013 to 2021. In 2017, he appeared in the Broadway production of Prince of Broadway, and that same year he was featured in the short film Race, directed by Daniel Barnhill. Additional stage work included Festival of The Lion King in Hong Kong and Encores. In 2018, he took on the title role in the North American tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, a production for which he became widely recognized. The Phantom of the Opera production team later noted that he had "brilliantly led" the tour. In 2019, The New York Times described his portrayal of Kilian in Heartbeat Opera's production of Weber's Der Freischütz at the Baruch Performing Arts Center in Manhattan as "excellent." During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, he played Macbeth in Heartbeat Opera's online production Lady M, based on Verdi's Macbeth, alongside Felicia Moore in the title role. His Broadway credit in Caroline, or Change came in 2021, and additional stage credits included The Golden Apple. His final performance was Off-Broadway, in Heather Christian's Oratorio For Living Things in March 2022.

As a concert soloist, Lee performed in Handel's Messiah, at Sedona Opera Saloons, at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, and at the Romanian Embassy in New York. Among his honors, he reached the final list of Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and received the National Association of Teachers of Singers Artist Award. He was also part of the team that received the 2021 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for the recordings associated with Prince of Broadway and Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.

In his personal life, Lee met his future wife, Angie Lee Graham, in New York City at the Harlem young single adult ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which he had joined in 2010. The two married in August 2015 and had a daughter together. At the time of his death, the family was living in Utah, where Lee had been pursuing a second career in UX design. He was diagnosed with colon cancer six months before his death and died on December 1, 2022.