Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Lee Summers has been creating music since his youth. In high school, while running for high school student body president, he adapted the Osmond Brothers’ song “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” into a campaign song—an early glimpse of his instinct for musical storytelling.

After moving to New York, Summers began building songs on cassette recorders until his Dreamgirls castmate Bobby Day encouraged him to purchase a Fostex four-track recorder. That moment proved life-changing, becoming his “kitchen” for composing. He later upgraded to a Tascam eight-track while studying songwriting at the Songwriters Hall of Fame with Lou Stallman. 

A class assignment to visit twenty music publishers led to his first publishing deal with Famous Music (formerly a division of Paramount now Sony Music Publishing) for his song “Come To Me For Love,” now featured in From My Hometown, the Off-Broadway musical licensed through Concord Theatricals.

Summers’ catalog, published through Marytime Music, now includes more than 300 songs. Artists who have performed his music in release, demo or theatrical performance include Billy Porter, Lillias White, Marva Hicks, James Monroe Iglehart, Marty Thomas, B.J. Crosby, Timothy Graffin Reed, Maurice Hines, Jennifer Lewis, Adriane Lenox, Aisha de Haas, Natasha Williams and the late, great Harold Nicholas of the Nicholas Brothers. 

In 2025 he released Soulriginals: Songs from the Vault of Lee Summers, a compilation of previously unreleased recordings now available on major streaming platforms.

Lee Summers has written music for numerous theatrical works that have been produced Off-Broadway and at regional theatres across the country, with new projects currently in development for Broadway. For more about his musical theatre works and song samples, please visit the Musicals page.