South Korean-born Sinae Lee leads a busy life as a soloist, chamber musician and
lecturer based in Glasgow, UK. Since her UK début with the Royal Scottish
National Orchestra (RSNO), playing Brahms Piano Concerto No.1, she has also
played with the Korean Symphony Orchestra, St. James Orchestra, Glasgow
Orchestral Society, RCS Wind Emsemble and RCS Orchestra. She has frequently
appeared in concerts in New York, St. Petersburg, Riga, London, Edinburgh and
Glasgow as well as in her native cities in Korea such as Seoul, Suwon and Busan.
In Korea, she studied piano at Yewon School and Seoul Arts High School. After
graduating Seoul National University with Distinction, Sinae was offered a place
to study at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) with a full scholarship awarded
by the Inches Carr Trust. A year later she obtained MMus with Distinction at RCS.
While studying in Seoul, she won many prestigious prizes, such as the Chung-Ang
Daily Newspaper competition, and the Korean Music Association for Overseas
competitors. Her prizewinning career had continued in UK where she won the
London Intercollegiate Beethoven competition as well as numerous RCS Prizes
including A. Ramsay-Calder Debussy Prize, Bach Prize, Governors' Recital Prize,
Concerto Competition Prize, Ian D Watt Award and the Dunbar-Geber Prize.
Her extraordinary playing has been greatly appreciated in many master classes
held by Lazar Berman, Dmitri Alexeev and John Lill.
In 2006, Sinae recorded Karol Szymanowski's complete piano works on 4 CDs,
released by the Divine Art Record Company. These recordings mark the first
complete CD set in the world containing the late published Prelude in C sharp
minor. This recording of Szymanowski's entire output in this genre is her début
recording and has received highly acclaimed reviews from Gramophone
(Recommended Recording), BBC Music Magazine (Benchmark Recording), MusicWeb
International (Recording of the Month, November 2006), Pianist Magazine
(Recommended Recording), All Music Guide (Classical Editors' Best of the Year
2007) and Res Musica. Some of the pieces from her Szymanowski CDs have been
broadcasted on BBC Radio 3, Radio New Zealand and Busan KBS TV.
Between June and July 2011, she performed the entire series of the Années
de pèlerinage by Liszt in UK and in Korea, celebrating the 200 anniversary of his
birth.The studio recording of this repertoire will be released on the RCS/Nimbus
Alliance label around May 2012.
Sinae also has been in demand for prize adjudications. Recent adjudications
include Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Piano Scholarships at the Royal
Northern College of Music (RNCM), A Ramsay-Calder Debussy Prize and Walcer
Prize at the RCS.
Sinae studied piano with Hwa-Young Yi, Hyoung-Joon Chang in Korea and Philip
Jenkins in UK. Since 2001, Sinae has been teaching piano as a Lecturer in
the department of Keyboard and Collaborative Piano at RCS.
Sinae Lee
Flabbergasted at her performance
(The Herald, Glasgow)
Formidably equipped
(Gramophone)
- Gramophone Recommended
Recording
- BBC Music Magazine Benchmark
Recording
- MusicWeb Recording of the Month
- Pianist Magazine Recommended
Recording
Pianist / Lecturer
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Szymanowski: Complete piano works
(Divine Art 21400)
biography