Born in 1979, Lee Dunleavy began his career in Church music as Organ Scholar at St Peter's Church in Harrogate. He studied music at Hertford College, Oxford where he was Organ Scholar and later Organist; additionally at Oxford he served as a Choral Scholar at Worcester College and was Manager of the Oxford University Orchestra. After working as Director of Music at Christ Church, Southgate, he was awarded the Organ Scholarship at York Minster, a position he held for some two years, combining this with teaching at both The Minster School and St Peter's School. He holds the Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists and is a prize-winning holder of the Archbishops' Certificate in Church Music. He was appointed Director of Music at All Saints', Northampton in September 2006 and in June 2007 he was appointed Director of Music of the Northampton Bach Choir.

He is also a prolific composer, and has studied with Hugh Collins Rice, Brian Ferneyhough and, through a Britten-Pears Scholarship, Judith Weir. He has recently completed a set of Five Sacred Songs, for the Boys of All Saints' Church Northampton. They are set bi-lingually and were given their first performance in English in services in late 2006 and early 2007 at All Saints. The first complete performance was given in German at the Elizabethkirche in Marburg, Germany, in celebration of the 800th anniversary of the birthday of Elizabeth of Hungary.