YOONHEE LEE is a Korean-American violinist. She is currently based in Boston and performs around the world. Her biggest influences are the late Masuko Ushioda, Vera Beths, and the late Anner Bijlsma.
Lee has premiered and recorded numerous works by composers such as Rebecca Saunders, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Richard Barrett, and Nina Young. Other composers with whom she has worked closely include Enno Poppe, Georg Friedrich Haas, Kaija Saariaho, Beat Furrer, Jörg Widmann, Lei Liang, and Shiuan Chang. She is the dedicatee of a solo violin piece by composer Simone Cardini, titled Ramificazioni d'indistinto (2018).
Notable solo and ensemble appearances include Berliner Philharmonie, St. Eustache in Paris, WDR Funkhaus Wallrafplatz Köln, Huddersfield Town Hall, Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Concertgebouw, Musiikkitalo, Concertgebouw Brugge, Royal Albert Hall, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Jordan Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, Fraser Performance Studio at WGBH Boston, Shostakovich Hall, and Teatro Gran Rex in Buenos Aires. Lee has held two major concert tours in China.
Born in Seoul, Lee began the piano at the age of three and violin at five. She and her family immigrated to Boston just before her tenth birthday. She did not speak a word of English, and for years music became her means of communication as well as refuge. Early experiences of navigating between languages and cultures remain a strong part of her identity; as an artist she is interested in fluidity and fragility of genres and boundaries, and she seeks innovation and experimentation in all her endeavors.
Lee’s plays on a 2015 Andrew Ryan violin and her primary bow is a Joseph Henry bow circa 1860, previously owned by the late Masuko Ushioda.
New England Conservatory (B.M. 2011, M.M. 2013), Conservatorium van Amsterdam (M.M. 2015 cum laude); Frank Huntington Beebe Fund for Study Abroad (2013-14)
November 2023