Lee Hartman (he/him) holds degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) (DMA, MM) and the University of Delaware (BM). At UD, he received a Dean’s Scholar position enabling him to pursue an individually designed academic program combining music education and composition. He studied music composition with James Mobberley, Paul Rudy, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, and Jennifer Margaret Barker. He served for three years as the assistant director to Musica Nova at UMKC, the conservatory's new music ensemble. He previously taught at the University of Central Missouri and was the recipient of a 2016–17 Excellence in Teaching Award from the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

Dr. Hartman is currently the artistic director of the Mid America Freedom Band. In the past he was the director of programming for the Harriman-Jewell Series and performed with NorthWinds Symphonic Band on oboe and English horn. In 2018 he served as artistic director for the Gay Games X in Paris, France and, with MAFB, hosted the Annual Conference of the Lesbian and Gay Band Association in Kansas City. Under his artistic leadership, MAFB has been the invited guest ensemble at Electronic Music Midwest and Women Band Directors International Conference and has been named a finalist for the American Prize in Band/Wind Ensemble Performance—community division in 2021, and in 2022, was the winner of the Pride Bands Alliance’s Innovative Programming Award for Live Performance.

He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts but was raised in West Chester, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia.