Debut Recital
Oct. 12, 1985
The Kennedy Center
About the Artist
Hyekyung Lee, born in Wonju, Korea in 1959, began to play piano at the age of 6. After winning several national music competitions, she had her first public concert with Seoul Sinfonietta Orchestra in 1970, and 4 years later became the soloist for the Korean Jeunesses Musicales Orchestra. Entering Folkwang Music College in Essen. Germany in 1976. she subsequently won the DAAD German government scholarship, the Folkwang Prize Competition and the nationwide German Music College Union Competition.
Transferring to Munich Music College, she graduated with top marks in 1981. During 2 years of graduate school, she gave recitals, performed for various radio Programs and earned the Bach Prize at Vianna da Motta International Competition in Lisbon.
In 1984, Miss Lee returned home to teach at Chung-Ang University as a professor. Today, Hyekyung Lee is recognized as one of Korea’s outstanding musicians with her wide concert repertoire from baroque to contemporary. In 1984 she received the ‘Critic’s Prize’ from the Korea Music Pen Club. In 1988 she was named “Musician of the Year” by Dong—a music magazine. In 1998 she received the “Korea Music Award” from the Korea Music Society. In 2004 she received the “Seoul Music Prize” from the Korea Music Critic Association. In 2005 she was in the jury of the Louisiana International Piano Competition, in 2006 she was a guest professor at the Music College in Saarbrücken, Germany. In 2009-11 she was the vice president of the Korea Piano Society.
Hyekyung Lee’s music has taken her to 4 continents. She has performed at Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center in the USA, in Sydney, Vienna, Moscow, Tokyo, Manila and with the the Ulster Orchestra in Northern Ireland, Osaka New Philharmonic Orchestra, Rumania’s Oltahia Orchestra, the Moldovan National Orchestra and Russia’s Ufa Symphony Orchestra. In Korea she plays regularly with the Korea Philharmonic Orchestra and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. She has also performed chamber music with the Colorado String Quartet, the New Budapest String Quartet, flautist Patrick Galloy and Maxence Larrieu, trumpeter Stephen Burns, Korea’s top violinist Dong-Suk Kang and the Korean traditional drum quartet Samulnori, among many others. Miss Lee’s career has also brought her in contact with many fine conductors, including Vahktang Jordania, Bernhard Gueller, Barry Wordsworth, Sandro Suturello and Yan Pascal Tortelier.
Hyekyung Lee has recorded more than 10 CDs for “Classical Records” in Moscow. She is a music director of the piano ensemble group “Piano On” and a member of chamber music group CAU Camerata.