
Samuel Lee
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Samuel Lee is the winner of the Malko Competition for Young Conductors 2024. Previously, he was awarded first prize winner of the BMI International Conducting Competition in Bucharest and the International Conducting Competition in Taipei. At the end of the 2024/25 season, he completed his tenure as Associate Conductor of Cincinnati Symphony.
Lee’s 2025/26 season includes his conducting debuts with Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Tonkünstler Orchestra, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Bodensee Philharmonic, L’orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice Genova, as well as returns to Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker and Korean National Symphony Orchestra. He also makes his first appearances with Orquesta Ciudad de Granada and Arctic Philharmonic as soloist and conductor.
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Among the orchestras Lee has conducted are Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Bamberger Symphoniker, Hamburger Camerata at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Leipziger Symphonieorchester at Gewandhaus, Symphoniker Hamburg, Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt State Orchestra, Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Bucharest Symphony Orchestra, Arad Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra and the SAC Festival Orchestra.
As an avid promoter of contemporary music, Lee has conducted premieres by Bryce Dessner, Giuseppe Gallo-Balma, and Marc Migó. He was also a Conducting Fellow with Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in 2021 and 2022.
Lee is an alumnus of Hochschule für Musik ‘Hanns Eisler’ Berlin, where he studied viola with Tabea Zimmermann and later, orchestral conducting with Christian Ehwald. Lee completed his studies in orchestral conducting at Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg with Ulrich Windfuhr.
As a violist, Lee has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as Baden-Baden Philharmonic, Münchener Kammerorchester, Bodensee Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, KBS Symphony and Korean National Symphony orchestras, and at Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Music Festival.
From 2009 to 2017, Lee was the violist of Novus String Quartet, touring all over the world to venues such as Berliner Philharmonie, New York’s Carnegie Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein, Kölner Philharmonie and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. He also was the second prize winner of the 61st International Music Competition of ARD Munich, and first prize winner of Salzburg International Mozart Competition. He served as a viola professor at Hochschule für Musik und Theater ‘Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’ in Leipzig, Germany until 2022.