Chicago native Sang Mee Lee has warmed the hearts of audiences around the world. From Belgium and Germany to Switzerland, Korea, and the United States, she has been called “the rising star to watch in the music world.”
Sang Mee debuted as soloist with the Chicago Businessman’s Orchestra at the age of five and has appeared as soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Erich Leinsdorf, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra under Emmanuel Krivine, and the Korean Broadcasting Orchestra under Eun-Sung Park. Other solo performances have included appearances with the Bryan Symphony, the Kingsport Symphony Orchestra, the Peninsula Symphony and the Santa Cruz Orchestras of California, the Sewanee Festival Orchestra of Tennessee, and the DuPage Philharmonic. Sang Mee has also performed in recital around the country and in Europe and the Far East. Here in Chicago, she has appeared as guest artist on the Dame Myra Hess Series and the Ravinia Rising Stars.
Sang Mee’s performing qualities have been recognized around the globe, winning first prize awards from the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition, the Irving M. Klein International String Auditions, the Seventeen Magazine/General Motors Concerto Competition, the William C. Byrd Competition and the Julius Stulberg Auditions. In Chicago, she has been a winner in the Illinois Young Performers Competition and the top scholarship recipient of the Union League Civic & Arts Foundation. In 1996, Sang Mee was made National Honorary Member of the Delta Omicron Music Fraternity.
Also a frequent chamber musician, Sang Mee often appears on the concert series at the Music Institute of Chicago where she has been on faculty since 2000. She also appears regularly on the contemporary music series Music For A While and has been a guest artist at the Hot Springs Music Festival in Arkansas, the Chamber Music Series at Tannery Pond, and the Highlands Chamber Music Festival in North Carolina. She is a co-founder of the Metamorphosen Chamber Ensemble of Boston and has been on summer faculty at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival in Sewanee, Tennessee. She has also been on the chamber music faculty at Northwestern University since 2004.
In 2008 Sang Mee became a founding member of the Chicago-based Beethoven Project Trio, along with cellist Wendy Warner and pianist George Lepauw. The primary focus of the trio is to perform and record the complete Beethoven Piano Trios, and a few other relevant trios including some new commissions. In 2009, the trio gave the World Premiere of a rediscovered Beethoven Piano Trio in Chicago, to great critical acclaim and will release their debut recording in May 2010.
A graduate of The Juilliard School, Sang Mee has earned both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in violin performance. Her past teachers and mentors have included Dorothy DeLay, Masao Kawasaki, Hyo Kang, Felix Galimir and Samuel Sanders, Roland and Almita Vamos, Robert Lipsett, Josef Gingold, Victor Aitay, and Betty Haag. She has participated in master classes for Salvatore Accardo, David Cerone, Sidney Harth, Cho-Liang Lin, Robert Lipsett, Ruggiero Ricci, and Pinchas Zukerman. She has also attended various music festivals including Meadowmount School for Strings, Encore School for Strings, and the Aspen Music Festival.
