In 2019, Lee was invited to conduct the Orchestra Giovanile di Siena as part of an audition for the Chigiana International Music Festival in Siena. He was also invited to the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy in Tokyo, organized by the Tokyo Spring Festival, where he conducted Verdi’s Rigoletto.
An avid promoter of contemporary music, Lee has conducted several premieres of orchestral and ballet works including pieces by Bryce Dessner, Giuseppe Gallo-Balma and Marc Migó. He was also a conducting fellow with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in 2021 and 2022, where he worked with conductors Cristian Măcelaru, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Octavio Más-Arocas and Marin Alsop.
Lee is an alumnus of Hochschule für Musik ‘Hanns Eisler’ Berlin, where he studied viola with Prof. Tabea Zimmermann (BM, MM, Konzertexamen) and orchestral conducting with Prof. Christian Ehwald (BM, MM). Lee completed Konzertexamen in orchestral conducting at Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg with Prof. Ulrich Windfuhr.
As a violist, Lee has performed with several orchestras worldwide and was invited to perform with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic, Münchener Kammerorchester, Southern German Philharmonic, Zabrze Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, KBS Symphony and Korean National Symphony orchestras, and at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Music Festival.
He also served as a viola professor at Hochschule für Musik und Theater ‘Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’ in Leipzig, Germany until 2022.
From 2009 until 2017, Lee was the violist of the Novus String Quartet, which, performed in and was invited to, renowned venues such as the 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 the Salzburg International Mozart Competition.
