Lee Mills, Executive Director | 2026 Season Unveiled: Palm Springs Friends of Philharmonic's Musical Highlights

Mutual Broadcasting Singers: 00:00:00

In a land of sunshine where the palm trees sway There's a special show to brighten up your day. From rockin festivals to Broadway dreams. Tune in with Bonnie G. It's The Desert Scene. The Desert Scene with Bonnie G.

Meet the stars and feel the beat from the Coachella Valley. It's the place to be for all the culture, fun and har. The Desert Scene, Yeah. With Bonnie G.

Howard Hoffman, Announcer: 00:00:39

Mutual Broadcasting welcomes you to The Desert Scene. Featuring conversations with the people who make culture, art and entertainment happen in the Coachella Valley.

From local theater to live music, art exhibits to cinema and beyond. Now here is your host, Bonnie G.

Bonnie G., Host: 00:00:57

Welcome to The Desert Scene.

So happy to have you here today and happy to welcome to our show Lee Mills, who is executive director of the Palm Springs Friends of the Philharmonic. And he's got a lot to tell us about today. There's concert season 25, 26, all kinds of stuff. Hi Lee, how are ya?

Lee Mills, Guest: 00:01:14

I'm well, thank you. How are you?

Bonnie G., Host: 00:01:16

Good. Thanks for being here. I really appreciate it.

Lee Mills, Guest: 00:01:17

Thank you for having me.

Bonnie G., Host: 00:01:19

ig concert season planned for: 2025

Lee Mills, Guest: 00:01:27

st,: 2026

This is like one of the major powerhouse orchestras of the United States and of course one of the most famous conductors alive today. So that's going to be a fantastic concert. Also we have the Academy of St. Martin with Joshua Bell, world renowned violinist.

He's going to be leading the orchestra and also playing along. We have one that's very special to me, which is the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which we get every year.

But this year we have them with their music director, Gustavo Dudamel, and this is his last season as the music director of the LA Phil. So that's also a very special concert. We have an orchestra coming from Minaria, Mexico with Carlos Miguel Prieto, the Minaria Symphony Orchestra.

They've got a really exciting program planned for us that's got a lot of Latin American and Mexican music on it, which will be really fun, I think, for our audience. A little bit different. And we also have the Dallas Symphony Orchestra coming with Fabioluisi, another fantastic American orchestra.

And San Diego Symphony is also returning with Rafael Paiari.

Bonnie G., Host: 00:02:46

So how do you, when you sit down and plan concert season, what are some of the factors that go into that into what it ultimately looks like.

Lee Mills, Guest: 00:02:57

Yeah, I mean, the biggest factor is what orchestras are available in the marketplace. Who's coming on tour, who's going to be able to come out here to Palm Desert?

stras, like I'm doing for the: 2027

exciting Orchestras coming in: 2027

If it's earlier, very early on in the planning, sometimes I can have some influence on that being like, I, you know, we've just had that piece last year. I don't want to do it again.

Or our audience is really asking for some more contemporary music or they want some more Shostakovich or whatever it is, Brahms.

You know, I do survey our audience a couple of times a year just to understand if we're meeting their needs, if we're meeting their expectations and what they'd like to see more of, what they might like to see less of, what. What is popular, what is not popular among the things that we're already doing.

And I kind of use that to guide which way I nudge the orchestras when they're talking about coming out here.

Bonnie G., Host: 00:04:18

Are they. Are orchestras usually pretty flexible and willing to change things they were planning? If you say, hey, we just did that last year, are they.

Is it usually a very congenial process if you make changes?

Lee Mills, Guest: 00:04:31

It is very congenial. They're not always flexible. It depends, like I said, on the timing. If I can get.

If I can start talking to them very early, like two years ahead of time, then it's a lot easier to be able to make special requests about things as it gets closer. You know, these orchestras, they're planning their own seasons in their own hometowns and selling their own subscriptions.

And oftentimes what they take on tour is a collection of concerts that they've recently played in their hometown so that they don't have to add a lot of extra rehearsals, which is very expensive to be able to do the tour.

So they will bring out a concert that they've recently produced in Chicago, and then after their week of doing their concerts in Chicago, they'll take that tour on the road.

So if it's late in the process and they're already selling their tickets and all of that stuff, it's very hard for us to change what repertoire is going to be on the program. But if I do get it in early enough, then I do have a little bit of ability to influence the direction.

And one thing that I've been able to do most successfully is I maintain a list of everything that we've recently performed.

And usually right at the very beginning of our conversations, I send them that list and I say, you know, I'd like to avoid these pieces because we just did them last year.

Bonnie G., Host: 00:05:45

Right.

Lee Mills, Guest: 00:05:46

If at all possible.

Bonnie G., Host: 00:05:47

And as far as how long are most of these orchestras about the same size? I'm guessing it's quite a number of people. So the logistics of getting them here and hotels and all of that stuff, that.

That's sounds like a pretty big job.

Lee Mills, Guest: 00:06:00

Yeah, that is a huge job. Unfortunately, it's not my job. We. We have varying size of orchestras that tour, but most of them are large. You know, like The Academy of St.

Martin is a chamber orchestra. It will be sl. Slightly smaller than the other ones, but most of the orchestras that come are bringing 80 to 100 musicians with them.

And that is a very big job. Fortunately, my job ends at signing the contract saying that we're going to hire you to come here. And the.

The cost of all of that transportation and everything is built into the upfront fee that I pay them and they deal with. They have their own travel agents and everything that help them deal with arranging the logistics. Yeah.

Bonnie G., Host: 00:06:41

Let's talk a little bit about you and your journey to becoming the executive director of the Palm Strings.

Friends of the Philharmonic, tell us a little bit about your journey, how you got into music, and what brought you here to the desert, to this position.

Lee Mills, Guest: 00:06:55

Yeah, it's been a long and winding path, for sure. I grew up in Belgrade, Montana, a little small cow town of about 6,000 people. And we had a symphony orchestra nearby in Bozeman.

So my parents were subscribers. When one of them couldn't go, I would go in the other's play, you know, with the other one.

And I've always had exposure to music growing up, but nobody in my family was particularly musical.

I don't have any, you know, musicians in the family, but a piano showed up one day when I was three years old because my parents helped some friends move. And it's kind of funny, I always thought it was like a thank you gift. Thanks for helping us move. Here's a present.

But now that I'm an adult and I own my own piano, I realized it was probably more Of a. Like, we don't want to have to deal with this anymore. Can you take it?

Bonnie G., Host: 00:07:42

Yeah. Yeah.

Lee Mills, Guest: 00:07:44

But in any case, it ended up in our living room. And I started, you know, playing around on it and asking my parents for piano lessons. They finally acquiesced when I was 4 years old.

So I started studying formally piano when I was 4. And then I picked up a lot of things throughout grade school. I played in the wind ensemble. I played trumpet. I started playing in jazz bands.

I sang in the choirs. I played French horn for a while. I was just always highly involved in music, Every opportunity that I had and.

But growing up in Montana, I never really thought. I didn't have a lot of references for professional musicians. There weren't a lot of them around. So I never thought of it as a career, actually.

So, going to college, I got a scholarship to be a music major, but I still didn't think that would be my career. So I was simultaneously doing a double major in physics, thinking that I would go into engineering or something.

But I didn't do so well in physics, it turns out. And I really loved music. And by the second year of my college, I did a conducting class, and I fell in love with it.

I just totally fell in love with it. It started kind of taking over my life.

I would spend entire weekends in my room just looking at a Beethoven symphony and trying to figure out what makes the score work. And I put together my own orchestra at the college. So for the last two years of my undergraduate degree, I had my own orchestra that I conducted.

We did, like, four concerts every year.

And since I went to a small liberal arts college, which was Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, the faculty was very supportive, and they actually helped me design my own path to a major as a music major, but with a specialty in conducting instead of one of the normal instruments that people would major in.

So that was really a wonderful part of my education, and it helped set me up to get into the Peabody Institute, which is part of Johns Hopkins University, in their conducting program, as a graduate student.

So I did a graduate performance diploma at Peabody, and then after that, I was invited by Maren Alsop, who's the music director of the Baltimore Symphony, to be her conducting fellow for the next year, which also was in conjunction with an artist diploma at the Peabody Institute, which is. Artist diploma is. It's a terminal degree for performers.

It's not quite as academic as, like, a doctorate, but it has a lot more performance requirements. And after that, I was on faculty at Towson University for a couple of years teaching, conducting and conducting the orchestras.

And I ended up getting a job in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as the resident conductor of the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, where I spent five years conducting the orchestra there.

Bonnie G., Host: 00:10:28

Wow, that's great.

Lee Mills, Guest: 00:10:30

Yeah, it was, it was a lot. I love Rio. It's an amazing city.

And simultaneously building up a career, freelancing as a guest conductor with some of the big orchestras around the country here and around the world, actually. And then after Rio de Janeiro, I went to Seattle.

of the Seattle Symphony from: 2019

And when the pandemic happened and our performances were canceled and I was kind of twiddling my thumb, I had a real concern that we wouldn't be able to return to concert halls once the pandemic drug on beyond three, four, five, six months. I started getting worried that this whole entire industry was done.

And I had a friend who suggested that I get an mba because a lot of the skills that I have as a conductor could be transferable into the business world and an MBA would help help my credentials on that. So I did that and I actually found out that the MBA was really relevant to my work as a conductor.

There's a, of psychology and a lot of, you know, how to build team consensus and things like that that were very useful. But I also noticed that I, I have a real interest in the business side of classical music.

You know, I've been in all of these institutions as a staff conductor, not the music director, not somebody that's able to make the decisions that affect the whole organization. And watching these decisions happen and feeling like I would like to participate really in that kind of process.

So I finished my mba, the world opened back up. I'm. I still conducting. I'm actually music director of the Greenville Symphony Orchestra in South Carolina. And.

But I really wanted a job where I could have some influence on the business decisions in our industry.

So I was looking for a job that wouldn't take up all of my time, that would allow me to continue to conduct, but would let me use that other side of my brain. And I came across this job with the Palm Springs Friends of Philharmonic and it's been a wonderful year.

I've been here for a year and a month so far, and it's been great. Okay. Yeah.

Bonnie G., Host: 00:12:45

So relatively new as all, you know, the scheme of things but wow. I think that piano showing up was divine intervention.

Lee Mills, Guest: 00:12:52

It was.

Bonnie G., Host: 00:12:53

I don't believe in coincidences because that's.

Lee Mills, Guest: 00:12:55

The world works in mysterious ways.

Bonnie G., Host: 00:12:56

Yeah. Yeah. So let's talk a little, just a little bit about also about grants. Grants for students and music in schools.

What's the status of sort of, in general, if you will, music in schools in the Palm Springs area? Because we all know that. We think that that's the first thing that gets cut when there are budget issues. What's the status right now?

Lee Mills, Guest: 00:13:16

We actually have a lot of very strong music programs in the. In the Coachella Valley. You know, there's. I always. What is it? The Music Theatre, mtu, The Rancho Mirage.

There are great band programs throughout the Valley. There's some interesting program in some of the cities that are more like. There's. What is it called?

I'm going to get the name wrong, but I think Cathedral City has like a choir focal article that's like a, you know, more Latin American focused. There's a lot of really great music programs. And you know, last year, what's the number?

There was a proposition that was passed in the California law that actually gives schools more resources for music education, which is great.

Bonnie G., Host: 00:14:03

Yeah, yeah.

Lee Mills, Guest: 00:14:04

And we're really hoping to capitalize on that and be able to provide curriculum and resources and things for teachers.

I'm currently working with one of the world's leading orchestras actually that is really great at music education in developing a curriculum that we can deploy here in the Coachella Valley for general music education that's actually designed to be used by teachers who aren't necessarily music teachers that are general education teachers. But it's user friendly for the teachers. But also get music into the classrooms more. And it will be something that schools can spend this.

These resources from this proposition on to be able to bring more music curriculum into the classroom. So those are all really great. And we have fantastic musicians who grow up in the Coachella Valley. The Palm Springs Friends of Philharmonic.

We provide scholarships for any student from the Coachella Valley to attend summer music programs. We will provide financial assistance for them to pay for those programs. And we actually. It's fun.

We have a student who went for several years as a student to summer camp and we would provide her with a scholarship. And now she's back in the valley as a teacher in the school system teaching music.

We also provide scholarships for students who graduate from the Coachella Valley area to attend University for four years. We provide $5,000 scholarship a year for these students. We have a Student at the Royal Conservatory of Music in London.

We have a student who just graduated last year, excuse me, from University of Redlands and has gone on to be a master's student at Oklahoma State in tuba performance.

So, you know, we do have some very accomplished musicians coming out of here, and we want to make sure that we're supporting them and getting them as far as we possibly out into that profession. But it's not just. The goal isn't just always to produce a musician. Sometimes, you know, it ends up producing a doctor or a.

An attorney or a White House staff member or, you know, whatever. But I. I firmly believe that studying music and what we learn through music and the, the practice of it and playing together with others. Yes.

Bonnie G., Host: 00:16:15

Yeah, yeah.

Lee Mills, Guest: 00:16:15

Really, really makes us more effective human beings in the world.

Bonnie G., Host: 00:16:19

So if people wanted to find out more details about the Friends of the Philharmonic, Palms Friends in general, or their upcoming season, next season, what's your website? How could they find out more?

Lee Mills, Guest: 00:16:30

Yeah, our website is p s phil.org that's p s p h I l like Philharmonic, p s phil.org and you can find all of our concert information on there. You can find out how to support us. You can also send me an email, Lee L E esfil.org and I'm happy to talk to anybody who sends me an email.

We really got a lot of exciting projects.

Our board is just wrapping up a strategic planning series that we've been doing over the course of this season, and we're hoping to be able to initiate that soon for the next three to five years of how we want to grow some of these education programs and expand our programming. So it's a really exciting time and I'm happy to hear from anybody. Excellent.

Bonnie G., Host: 00:17:11

All right, Lee Mills, executive director of Palm Springs Friends of the Philharmonic, thank you so much for all the work, your great work you're doing here in the Valley, and appreciate you being here today.

Lee Mills, Guest: 00:17:19

Thank you. It's been a pleasure. Thanks for having me on the show.

Bonnie G., Host: 00:17:21

All right, and we'll see you all the next time on The Desert Scene.

Mutual Broadcasting Singers: 00:17:25

The Desert Scene with Bonnie G. Meet the stars and feel the beat from the Coachella Valley it's the place to be for all the culture, fun and harmony. The Desert Scene. Yeah.

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