Job placement in under a year: Fall 2025 Conducting graduate Donald Lee III has been named Music Director of Opera Memphis (OM), the institution announced in August.

"We are so excited to welcome Donald Lee III to the Opera Memphis team and can't wait for you to get to know him," OM posted on its Instagram page. Lee graduated in fall of 2025 from SFCM with a Professional Studies Certificate in Conducting, studying with SFCM Music Director Edwin Outwater.

"It was a pleasure having Donald as a student at SFCM," Outwater says. "He was already a fantastic coach and pianist when he arrived at SFCM so we focused on orchestral conducting while he was here. He absorbed things so well and now has a great way with singers and instrumentalists alike. I know Opera Memphis will thrive with him as an integral part of their leadership team."

Among Lee's highlights at SFCM included leading the Conservatory Orchestra through selections from Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64a/b and holding down the piano chair for the 2024 Black Student Union concert. "We didn't really have a piano player," the evening's organizer, 2026 Roots, Jazz, and American Music graduate Jay Hernández said at the time. "Donald just decided he wanted to step up and play piano for everybody's pieces, so big ups to him."

Lee also participated in a spring 2025 conducting fellowship with the California Symphony under Maestro Donato Cabrera. Prior to studying at SFCM, he was chosen as the first Ryan Opera Center conductor/pianist in Chicago for Chicago Lyric Opera's 2021/2022 season. Like SF Opera's Merola program, the Ryan Opera Center is considered one of the top pre-professional programs for young musicians in the U.S.

Learn more about studying conducting at SFCM.