Soyeon Lee, piano 2010 Naumburg Competition Winner January 9, 2011

First-prize winner of the prestigious 2010 Naumburg International Piano Competition, Korean pianist Soyeon Lee has already 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," while The Washington Post has lauded her for her "stunning command of the keyboard."

Lee has been rapturously received as guest soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, symphony orchestras of Columbus, Bangor, Napa Valley, San Diego, Scottsdale and Shreveport; New York City's Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra (South Korea) and Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional (Dominican Republic)—including performances under the batons of Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Jahja Ling and Otto-Werner Mueller

Recital appearances include New York City programs at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall and Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Concert Hall and Lincoln Center for the Performing Art's Alice Tully Hall, Washington D.C.'s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Cleveland's Severance Hall, the Ravinia Festival's "Rising Stars" series, Auditorio de Musica de Nacional in Madrid—part of a 13-city tour of Spain—and Baek-Am Art Hall in Seoul. An avid chamber musician, she has collaborated with the Parker, Chiara, Avalon and Afiara string quartets, bassist Edgar Meyer and the Edgeffect Ensemble with Mark O'Connor, and performed at the chamber music festivals of Laguna Beach, Taos and Montréal. Among Lee's most recent collaborative projects are joint performances in Seoul with her pop-star sister, Soeun Lee and as part of the newly formed quartet of pianists, Fourtissimo.

Passionate about expanding environmental consciousness through music, Lee gave to critical acclaim the first ever eco-awareness concert at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall in February 2008. Presented by TerraCycle, Inc. and Honest Tea, Inc., Lee wore a commissioned concert gown, made of more than 6000 used juice pouches, by eco-fashion designer Nina Valenti. This concert, "Re!nvented," brought more than 20 media features in The New York Times, TimeOut New York, International Herald Tribune, V Magazine, Vogue.com, Mami magazine, the Korean Broadcasting System and ABC's

Lee was featured on the January 2006 cover of Symphony magazine's annual "Emerging Artists" issue and in the 2008 edition of Musical America's "More Thrills of Discovery." She has been heard in live broadcasts from New York City on WQXR's McGraw-Hill Young Artists Showcase and WNYC's Soundcheck, and recorded performances from Washington's WGMS and Cleveland's WCLV; she has also been heard throughout the United States on National Public Radio.

Her debut CD on the Naxos label, featuring sonatas of Scarlatti, was released in February 2007 to critical acclaim. KOCH International Classics released her second album in April 2009 for which she was awarded the 2009 Young Artist Award from the Classical Recording Foundation.

Lee earned her Bachelor's and Master's degrees, and the Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School, where she worked extensively with Robert McDonald and Jerome Lowenthal. While at Juilliard, she won the Rachmaninoff Concerto Competition, two consecutive Gina Bachauer Scholarship Competitions and was awarded the Helen Fay Prize, Artur Rubinstein Prize, Susan Rose Career Grant and the William Petschek Piano Debut Award.

Lee is a winner of the 2004 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, as well as the Second and Mozart prizes of the Cleveland International Piano Competition and the Bronze Medal of the Paloma O'Shea Santander International Piano Competition.

Lee is currently pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts Degree at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York with Ursula Oppens and Wu Han, and serves as teaching assistant to Robert McDonald and Julian Martin at the Juilliard School. She is a Steinway Artist.

Official Website: http://sfperformances.org/performances/1011/SoyeonLee.html