Samuel Seungwon Lee

Biography:

Samuel Seungwon Lee, born in Seoul / South Korea in 1990, received his first violin and piano lessons at the age of four, and at the age of ten the first viola lessons with Prof. Myung Hee Cho. In 2007 he started his viola studies with Prof. Tabea Zimmermann and orchestral conducting with Prof. Christian Ehwald at the Hochschule für Musik ”Hanns Eisler” Berlin.

As violist he attended masterclasses from renowned musicians such as Yuri Bashmet, Nobuko Imai, Tatjana Masurenko, Roberto Diaz, Hartmut Rohde.

He won the 1^st Prize at the Anton Rubinstein International Competition, Michael Spisak International Competition and he is a prizewinner at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, Max Rostal International Competition.

Since 2009, Seungwon Lee has been a member of the Novus String Quartet, where they received lessons under Prof. Christoph Poppen and Prof. Hariolf Schlichtig at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München. The Novus String Quartet has won 2nd prize at the 61st International music competition of ARD Munich and in 2014, 1st prize at the Salzburg International Mozart Competition.

As a soloist, Seungwon Lee has performed with the Baden-baden Philharmonic Orchestra, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Southern German Philharmonic Orchestra, the Zabrze Philharmonic Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the KBS Symphony Orchestra, the Korean Symphony Orchestra and at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Music Festival.

As a conductor, Samuel Seungwon Lee conducted the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Hamburger Symphoniker, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Staatsorchester Frankfurt Oder, Brandenburg Symphoniker, Bucharest Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.

Samuel Lee won the 1st prize at the BMI International conducting competition in Bucharest and at the International Conducting Competition in Taipei. He was selected as an active participant where he received conducting masterclasses by maestros such as Riccardo Muti, Daniele Gatti, Markus Stenz. He assisted Vladimir Jurowski for a concert with London Philharmonic Orchestra at Seoul Arts Center.

Since 2016, he has been the orchestra conductor of the Orchestra in the C.P.E.Bach Musikgymnasium Berlin and teaches viola at Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy” in Leipzig as a “Lehrbeauftragter”. Samuel Lee has recently been appointed Assistant Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, beginning in the 2022–23 season.

He was invited for a project with maestro Riccardo Muti where he conducts Rigoletto by Verdi, which is organised by Tokyo Spring Festival.