First prize winner of the prestigious 2010 Naumburg International Piano Competition, Korean-American pianist *Soyeon Kate Lee* has been hailed by The New York Times as a pianist with “a huge, richly varied sound, a lively imagination and a firm sense of style,” and by the Washington Post for her “stunning command of the keyboard, from the beautifully gauged weighting of her finger strokes to the scrupulous calibration of inner voices and dynamics.”
Ms. Lee has performed as soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, San Diego symphony, and symphony orchestras of Columbus, Bangor, Naples, Bozeman, Abilene, Santa Fe, Boca Raton, Napa Valley; the Daejeon and Ulsan Philharmonic Orchestras in Korea, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional in Dominican Republic, and Orquesta de Valencia, including performances under the batons of Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Jahja Ling, Jorge Mester, and Otto-Werner Mueller.
In recent seasons, she has given recitals at New York’s Zankel, Alice Tully, and Merkin Halls, Washington’s Kennedy Center and Phillips Collection, Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, Madrid’s National Auditorium, and San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre. As an active chamber musician, she has collaborated with the Brentano, Parker, Chiara, Avalon, Manhattan, Afiara, and Daedalus quartets in performances throughout the U.S..
Ms. Lee’s debut CD of Scarlatti Sonatas on the Naxos label was released in February 2007 to critical acclaim, and her second album, “Re!nvented” for KOCH (E1) International Classics was featured in the Gramophone magazine to rave reviews, and was subsequently awarded the 2009 Young Artist Award by the Classical Recording Foundation. A Naxos recording artist, her CD featuring Liszt opera transcriptions will be released in January 2014, and she will return to the studios this season for a two-CD recording of Scriabin piano works.
Ms. Lee earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, and the Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School. While at Juilliard, she won every award granted to a pianist including the Rachmaninoff Concerto Competition, two consecutive Gina Bachauer Scholarship Competitions, Arthur Rubinstein Prize, Susan Rose Career Grant, and the coveted William Petschek Piano Debut Award.
Winner of the Concert Artist Guild Competition in New York, Ms. Lee is also a laureate of the Cleveland and Santander (Spain) International Piano Competitions. She has worked with Robert McDonald, Jerome Lowenthal, and Wu Han, and currently is a doctoral candidate at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York under the tutelage of Ursula Oppens, and Richard Goode. Ms. Lee serves on the faculty of the City College of New York, is the founder and co-artistic director of “Music by the Glass” series in New York City, and is a member of Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Two.
