Mozart Piano Trio K. 542
Brahms Piano Trio No. 2 C Major
American violinist Sean Lee is one of few violinists who dare to perform the complete 24 Caprices of Niccolò Paganini in concert. A recipient of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant, Lee has captured the attention of audiences worldwide, with performances described by the New York Times as “breathtakingly beautiful”.
Lee’s ongoing educational YouTube series, “Paganini POV”, utilizes modern technology to share a unique perspective on violin playing. In January 2022, Lee and pianist Peter Dugan released selections from Niccolò Paganini’s 24 Caprices as arranged by Robert Schumann, as an EP and video series titled “Paganini X Schumann: 9 Caprices”, after giving the first performance of the complete 24 Caprices in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s 52-year history.
Lee’s debut album was released by EMI Classics, and reached the iTunes top 20 classical bestsellers list. In 2018, Lee collaborated with pianist Peter Dugan to release a second album, SONGBOOK, featuring songs from all over the world from classical to jazz. As a soloist, Lee has appeared with orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, Israel Camerata Jerusalem, and Utah Symphony, and recital appearances have taken him to Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Festival di Carro Paganiniano of Italy, and Vienna’s Konzerthaus. A top prizewinner at the “Premio Paganini” International Violin Competition, Lee embraces the legacy of his late mentor, violinist Ruggiero Ricci, who made the first solo recording of the 24 Caprices in 1947.
Lee has collaborated in performances with Itzhak Perlman, Sir James Galway, Deborah Voigt, and members of the Emerson and Guarneri String Quartets. With the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Lee has performed numerous times at Lincoln Center, as well as on tour internationally at venues including the Lobkowicz Palace in Prague, Czech Republic; LG Arts Center in Seoul, Korea; Shanghai Concert Hall in Shanghai, China; and the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia. Lee also performed for PBS’s first international production of Live from Lincoln Center, “Odyssey: The Chamber Music Society in Greece”.
Lee currently resides in the Capital Region of New York State. Born in Los Angeles, Lee studied in Southern California with Robert Lipsett of the Colburn Conservatory, and with violin legend Ruggiero Ricci. Moving to New York City at age 17, Lee studied at the Juilliard School with the internationally acclaimed Itzhak Perlman. At the Juilliard School, Lee earned both Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees, and received the William Schuman Prize upon graduation.
Lee performs on violins made by Samuel Zygmuntowicz in 1995 and David Bague in 1999, and a bow made circa 1890 by Joseph Arthur Vigneron.
Cellist Jia Kim, chosen as a recipient of the prestigious 2017 Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund, began her cello studies at the age of ten in Korea where she has won first place in the Korean Music Association Competition, the National Symphony Orchestra Competition of Korea and the Young Musician Foundation's National Debut Concerto Competition. Since then Ms. Kim has taken the stage in cities across the United States, South America, Europe and South Korea. Her performances have been reviewed by the New York Times, Vermont Today, South Florida Classical Review, and have been broadcast on WQXR, PBS and KMZT Classical.
As a passionate and active chamber musician, Ms. Kim has worked with renowned artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Robert Mann, Kim Kashkashian, Frans Helmerson, Robert Spano, Emmanuel Villaume, John Williams, as well as members of the Juilliard String Quartet, Cleveland Quartet, Takacs Quartet, Orion String Quartet, and guest appearances with the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO), The Knights, and A Far Cry. She has taken the stage at venues including Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Chicago Symphony Center's Orchestra Hall, Miami's Arsht Center, Valle De Bravo in Mexico, Toronto's Royal Conservatory, Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Korea Society in NYC, Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Al-Hussein Cultural Center at the National Music Conservatory of Jordan, and many more.
Ms. Kim is a recipient of numerous awards including the Jack Smith Memorial Award, Most Promising Young Talent at the 2005 Pasadena Showcase House Instrumental Competition in California, and Performing Arts Scholarship at the Cerritos Center of Arts Education. She received a full scholarship to the Crossroads School in Santa Monica and the Colburn School in Los Angeles.
As a teenager, she spent five summers at The Perlman Music Program Summer Music School in Shelter Island which gave her life-changing musical experiences. She has also been invited to participate at Académie musicale de Villecroze, Kneisel Hall, White Mountains Music Festival, Sitka Music Festival, and The Perlman Music Program's Chamber Music Workshop, where she was invited to tour with Itzhak Perlman in Israel, Toronto, Mexico City, Virginia Beach, and Miami.
A devoted educator, Ms. Kim has worked with students from the Cleveland Institute of Music, American Academy of Jordan, Tel Aviv Conservatory of Music, Grand Valley State University, and has been invited to do a Visiting Artist Residency at the University of Hawaii and College of William and Mary. In 2016, she served as Tone Judge for the Violin Society of America Competition.
Ms. Kim serves on the Faculty of The Juilliard School pre college division, The Mannes School of Music, The Perlman Music Program, and New York Youth Symphony’s Chamber Music program.
Ms. Kim is the cellist of the award-winning Aeolus Quartet.
As Artistic Director of Chamber Music Stowe in Vermont and Central Chamber Series in NYC, Ms. Kim is committed to connecting with a wider audience through the powerful language of chamber music.
She is forever grateful to her mentors and teachers Ronald Leonard, Toby and Itzhak Perlman, and Joel Krosnick, with whom she studied at The Juilliard School for a Bachelor and Master Degree in Music. Ms.Kim performs on a Testore cello made in 1748 and a cello by Samuel Zygmuntowicz.
Hailed by The New York Times as “nimble” and “colorful,” Euntaek Kim is receiving worldwide recognition for his brilliant work as pianist, conductor, and composer.
Native of Incheon, South Korea, Kim moved to the U.S. at the age of 13, after sweeping all of the major piano competitions in his native country. After his move, Kim’s prowess proved unstoppable: He won prizes in numerous competitions, including The 4th International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians, was admitted to The Juilliard School College Division at the age of 16 with the “Presidential Distinction,” and was the main feature of the 2005 PBS documentary titled “Euntaek Kim and Performance of Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy.”
After receiving the Bachelor’s and the Master’s degrees at The Juilliard School, Kim continued his formal studies at Yale University as the Artist Diploma candidate, which he completed in 2013. Kim’s main instructors were Jerome Lowenthal and Boris Berman.
Kim is currently in the midst of compiling live recordings of the complete piano works by Sergei Prokofiev, which can be found on his YouTube channel (@euntaekkim).
Outside of his busy schedule with performing, composing, and teaching, Kim spends his leisure time reading, philosophizing, learning languages, lifting weights, and cooking. His wife Sara Rossi is a violist, and the two perform together frequently.