Thomas Oboe Lee was born in Beijing, China in 1945. He and his family left Communist China in 1949 and lived in Hong Kong for ten years until 1959 when he moved to Brazil, before emigrating to the US in 1966. He has a prolific output of 120 opuses, but his 6 and ½ minute “Morango… Almost a Tango” (1983) is his only big hit piece. It sounds very much like the kind of music that could be commissioned and performed by the Kronos Quartet – and indeed, it was, and is featured on their CD “White Man Sleeps“. It has also been recorded by the Lydian Quartet on MCA / Arts & Electronics, together with string quartets of Elena Firsova, Levon Chausian and Peter Child.