Hwayoon Lee was born in Seoul. She began playing the violin at the age of five, switched to the viola at nine and developed the basis of her viola playing from the great European tradition, studying with Sang-Jin Kim, primarily through the exercises of Tibor Varga.
Since the age of 13, she has been a popular violist in chamber music concerts and enjoys joining her teacher Sang-Jin Kim in his concerts. Since 2013, she has regularly toured with the ensemble of star violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter. Masterclasses with Yuri Bashmet, Tabea Zimmermann, Steven Isserlis and others and numerous prizes are testimony to her masterly effortless technique and warm musical radiance.
From 2015 to 2019, she studied with Prof. Nobuko Imai at the Kronberg Akademie (as a scholarship holder of the Friends of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation). Since 2021, she has been continuing her studies with Prof. Hartmut Rohde at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. (Graduation: concert exam)
From 2001 to 2003, she learned the art of Pansori from the master Jung-Hae Oh. Today, she has replaced her voice with her instrument bringing the expressiveness of this "art of storytelling" to the concert hall.
Hwayoon Lee regularly performs with international orchestras, including
the Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra (Krzysztof Penderecki), the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra (Manfred Honeck), the hr Symphony Orchestra (Gregory Vajda), the Moscow Soloists, the New Russia State Symphony Orchestra (Yuri Bashmet), the Munich Symphony Orchestra (Ken-David Masur), the Rundfunk Sinfonie Orchester Berlin (Michael Francis), the Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra (Joana Mallwitz) and the Philharmonie Baden-Baden.
Hwayoon Lee performs on a viola by Gasparo de Salò dating from 1590 on loan from the Samsung Foundation.
May 2022