None of the works of distinguished composer Benjamin Lees have, so far, incited a riot, but as Lees recounts the story of this notorious premiere, it sounds like he might be OK with it if one of his pieces did. "If an audience is outraged, that's good," he says. "That was a very positive form of reaction." Lees clarifies that it was the experience of hearing and seeing something completely new and different that so deeply perturbed Stravinsky's audience--and offering such an opportunity to an audience is hardly a bad thing.

Lees isn't a stranger to taking the musical road less traveled, and though performances of his works haven't brought listeners to blows, his music certainly aims to rouse emotions, and does. Audiences will have a chance to experience one of Lees' works and gain insight into its performance when the composer appears with the Cypress String Quartet and violist Geraldine Walther at a pair of events on Feb. 21 and Feb. 22 hosted by the San Jose Chamber Music Society. Lees and the quartet will appear in a discussion and demonstration of his String Quartet No. 1 on Feb. 21, and the Cypress String Quartet will perform the South Bay premiere of String Quartet No. 1 on Feb. 22. Lees will also take part in a discussion at the latter event.

Lees, who was raised in San Francisco and Los Angeles, began composing in his teens, drawn to a career in music by "attending concerts and being hypnotized by it," he remembers. Composition partly attracted him because he says he thought "out of the arrogance of ignorance, that I could write at least as well" as some of the music he heard performed. In his mid-20s, he began five years of study of advanced composition with George Antheil, a champion of the modernist movement and self-proclaimed "bad boy" of music.

During the time he was studying with Antheil, Lees also embarked on what has proved an impressive career. His works Sonata for Two Pianos and String Quartet No. 1 were among the first winners of the Fromm Music Foundation Award. After receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship (the first of two he would earn), Lees spent seven years traveling in Europe, eventually settling near Paris. During that time, he became the first recipient of the Copley Foundation Award and earned a Fulbright Fellowship. On his return to the United States, he first taught at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, then went on to teach at Queens College, the Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School of Music.

His works have been commissioned and performed by groups all over the world, including the New York Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, the Tokyo Quartet, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, NBC Symphony, American Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Ballet, to name a few.

A number of Lees' commissions have commemorated important historical events, from a piece honoring the 700th anniversary of the Grimaldi family in Monte Carlo, to three works that memorialize the Holocaust that include a symphony commissioned by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra to observe the 40th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust and two smaller-scale works commissioned by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Most recently, Lees was nominated for a 2003 Grammy award in the Best Contemporary Composition category for his Symphony No. 5 "Kalmar Nyckel." The work was commissioned by the Delaware Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the founding of Wilmington, by Swedes, the first Scandinavian settlement in what would become the United States.

Composing is such a demanding career, Lees says, that in his teachings, he actually works to discourage many of his students. Those who withstand the pressure are truly dedicated to the craft. "It's very hard to be a composer. You have to be driven," he says. "The creative urge is so great, you're a captive." Lees describes composing as "worse than having a mistress."

He says that one of the greatest challenges for composers today "is to stop trying to be original every step of the way." Such a single-minded pursuit of originality stymies creativity and honesty. Lees likens such self-conscious new music to the empty calories of canned whipped cream. "It's like putting Reddi-wip in front of a starving person. It looks nice, but in 30 seconds, it has flattened out." He says audiences these days are hungry for some meat and potatoes and gravy. Lees cites a tale about Verdi and a young composer/student who was trying to impress his master. After he had finished playing, Lees says, "Verdi told him to go home, 'put your hand over your heart and compose a little music.'"

Judging from Lees' catalog of works, it's clear that he not only knows his own heart, but that he has tapped into a musical pulse that has touched many.

The San Jose Chamber Music Society presents Benjamin Lees and the Cypress String Quartet, with Geraldine Walther at Le Petit Trianon, 72 N. Fifth St., San Jose. Discussion/demonstration on Feb. 21, 1:30 p.m. and concert Feb. 22, 7 p.m. (pre-concert discussion with Lees 6:15 p.m.). Concert tickets are $20­$30. For more information, call 408.286.5111 or www.sjchambermusic.org.