In 1997 Gee received her B.M. with honors and highest distinction in Piano Performance from the University of Iowa; there she also earned an M.A. in composition in 2002. In 2007, she earned her Ph.D. in music theory from the University of Music and Dramatic Arts, Graz, Austria where she studied musical composition with Beat Furrer.
With her brother Colin Gee, she performed at the Whitney Museum of Art and was a resident at the Montalvo Arts Center. She won the 2008 Rome Prize and was a Guggenheim Fellow in 2009. From 2010-2011, she was a fellow in composition at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart. In 2015, she received the Charles Ives Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The puzzle video game app Blek contains excerpts of Erin Gee's work. Gee is one of the Kronos Quartet 50 for the Future composers.
