Kristin Lee

• Violinist

Biography

As a recitalist, Kristin Lee has appeared in the world’s finest halls, including New York’s Metropolitan Museum, Steinway Hall’s Salon de Virtuosi, the Louvre Museum in Paris, and Korea’s Kumho Art Gallery. She has also appeared on the Rising Stars Series at the Ravinia Festival, and throughout northern Italy. An accomplished chamber musician, Ms. Lee has shared the stage with the world’s foremost artists, including Itzhak Perlman, Franz Helmerson, Paul Katz, Pinchas Zukerman, and the Orion String Quartet. She has also participated in the Chamber Music Workshop at the Perlman Music Program, the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute, Music@Menlo, and the Sarasota Music Festival.

Upcoming projects include a newly commissioned violin concerto written for Ms. Lee and the Metropolis Ensemble by acclaimed Asian-American composer Vivian Fung. In preparation for the première, she traveled with the composer to Bali to study gamelan and to experience the Balinese musical culture firsthand. Other upcoming engagements include solo performances with the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra and concerts on Astral Artists’ series, including a performance on the Philadelphia Brahms Festival.

Ms. Lee has been broadcast on New York’s WQXR on the McGraw Hill “Young Artists Showcase,” and with guitarist Mattias Jacobsson on Annie Bergen’s “The Office Hours.” Other broadcasts include PBS’s “Live from Lincoln Center,” the Kennedy Center Honors, and an appearance as a guest artist on WFMT Chicago’s Rising Stars series. Ms. Lee also appeared on a nationally broadcast PBS documentary entitled “PBS in Shanghai,” which chronicled a historic, cross-cultural exchange between the Perlman Music Program and Shanghai Conservatory.

Among Ms. Lee’s many awards and honors are the SYLFF Fellowship, Dorothy DeLay Scholarship, Excellent Achievement in Musicianship Award from the Pre-College Division of The Juilliard School, the Atlanta Jewish Community Competition in 1996, the Aspen Music Festival’s Violin Competition, the New Jersey Young Artist’s Competition, and the Steinway Hall Scholarship Foundation. She is the First Prize winner of three concerto competitions at The Juilliard School, an unprecedented achievement (in the Pre-College Division in 1997 and 1999, and in the College Division in 2007). She is also a winner of Astral Artists’ 2010 National Auditions.

Born in Seoul, Ms. Lee began studying the violin at the age of 5, and within just one year won First Prize at the prestigious Korea Times Violin Competition. In 1995, she moved to the United States and continued her musical studies under Sonja Foster. Two years later, she became a student of the legendary Dorothy DeLay and of Catherine Cho at The Juilliard School Pre-College Division. Following her performance of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with Juilliard’s Pre-College Symphony Orchestra in January 2000, she was chosen by Itzhak Perlman to become his student. Ms. Lee earned a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School in May of 2010 under Itzhak Perlman and Donald Weilerstein, where she served as an assistant teacher for Mr. Perlman’s studio as a Starling Fellow. She joins the faculty of Queens College in the fall of 2010.

Ms. Lee plays a 1692 Antonio Stradivarius, through the generous support from The Juilliard School.