Hwayoon Lee, graduate of the Young Soloists programme at Germany’s prestigious Kronberg Academy, is already building a substantial reputation as a viola soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. Grand Prix winner of the Yuri Bashmet Viola Competition 2013 and a scholar of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation, she has appeared at many major concert halls and festivals, collaborating with musicians such as Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Krzysztof Penderecki and András Schiff
Hwayoon Lee was born in Seoul in 1996. At the age of three, she was introduced to Pansori, Korea’s traditional music for voice and percussion. She took up the viola at the age of nine and went on to participate in master classes given by Yuri Bashmet and Wilfried Strehle. In 2014 she began her studies at the Kronberg Academy under Nobuko Imai, followed by postgraduate studies from autumn 2017.
In 2010, she emerged as the winner of her first international competition, the Johannes Brahms Competition, which takes place in Austria. This victory led to an invitation to perform at Musica in Collina in Lapedona, Italy. She caused a sensation in 2013, when, as the youngest contestant in the 7th International Yuri Bashmet Viola Competition in Moscow, she became the first person ever to receive its Grand Prix.
Recent highlights for Hwayoon Lee have included performances with the Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra (Krzysztof Penderecki), Bamberger Symphoniker (Manfred Honeck), Frankfurt Radio Symphony (Gregory Vajda), Moscow Soloists (Yuri Bashmet), Munich Symphony Orchestra (Ken-David Masur) and the Symphony Orchestra of New Russia.
As a chamber musician and recitalist, her festival appearances have included Edinburgh, George Enescu, Grafenegg, Marlboro, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Moritzburg, Rheingau, Schleswig-Holstein and Wolfegg.
In season 17/18 Hwayoon Lee will give her debut with Britten’s “Lachrymae” at the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under Michael Francis. Furthermore, she will perform concerts in Frankfurt, Paris, at the Weilburger Schlosskonzerte and on a tour throughout Korea.
On the 3rd of November 2017 her debut CD will be released at the Deutsche Grammophon, a recording of Schubert’s “Trout Quintet” with Anne-Sophie Mutter and Daniil Trifonov.
Since 2013, she has also toured regularly as a member of Mutter’s Virtuosi, appearing at many notable venues. Hwayoon Lee has been supported by the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation since July 2011, and in 2014 she partnered Ms. Mutter in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with the Bamberger Symphoniker and Manfred Honeck. She is also a beneficiary of the Korean Ministry of Culture’s AYAF project.
Reflecting her keen interest in awakening an enthusiasm for classical music in young people, Hwayoon Lee regularly gives concerts in kindergartens, children’s hospitals and orphanages.
Hwayoon currently plays a 1590 viola by the Brescian instrument-maker Gasparo da Sálo, on loan to her by the Samsung Foundation of Culture Korea and the Stradivari Society®.
2017/2018, © Foto: Lutz Sternstein This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions or additions, unless expressly authorised by artist management.