Anna Lee
Kronberg Academy Bachelor Studies with Ana Chumachenco funded by the Yehudi Menuhin Scholarship
Kronberg Academy Master Studies with Ana Chumachenco funded by the Yehudi Menuhin Scholarship
Violin Masterclasses, participant
Chamber Music Connects the World, junior
Kronberg Festival, concert
Classic for Kids
Mit Musik-Miteinander, tutor
Violin Masterclasses, concert
“...her talents are too wide to confine to this small wooden box...” - Robert Battey, The Washington Post
Delighting her listeners with "her warm, humane musicianship" and "sweet spot of grace", Anna Lee is an active concert violinist, chamber musician, and teacher.
Born in South Korea in 1995, she began violin studies at the age of four with Alexander Souptel and caused something of a sensation by making her orchestral debut one and a half year later performing Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Lan Shui. She spent a large part of her childhood in Japan and Singapore even though she was born in South Korea, and at the age of six moved to New York after being accepted to the Juilliard School Pre-College Division under the tutelage of Masao Kawasaki.
Concert venues that Anna Lee has appeared in are the Carnegie-Weill, Carnegie-Zankel, Wigmore, Beethoven-Haus, Avery Fisher, Victoria, Lotte, and Esplanade Concert Halls, as well as Merkin Hall and Peter Jay Sharp Theater. She has claimed top prizes in the 2022 Ysaÿe, 2022 Classic Strings Dubai, 2019 Montréal Competition, 2018 Indianapolis Competition, 2011 Sion-Valais Competition, 2011 Kronberg Violin Masterclasses, 2010 and 2012 Menuhin Competition (Junior and Senior Divisions, respectively), and Aspen Music Festival AACA Competition. Anna Lee has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts, awarded by Office for the Arts at Harvard, the Bernhard and Mania Hahnloser Violin Prize at the Verbier Festival Academy, and the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award.
She has also been featured in music festivals around the world such as the Gstaad Menuhin Festival and the Marlboro Music Festival, and on radio shows such as “From the Top” with host Christopher O’Riley and NPR Performance Today with host Fred Child. She has also been the cover page feature of the Wall Street Journal Magazine.
Notable chamber music collaborations include Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet and Steven Isserlis in the Kronberg Academy's "Chamber Music Connects the World" festival. Anna Lee was also presented by Sir András Schiff at the BeethovenFest in Bonn. As a soloist, Anna Lee made her New York Philharmonic debut in April 2011, as well as her Frankfurt debut in 2016 with maestro Christoph Eschenbach and the Hessische Rundfunk Radio Orchestra. She has also appeared with the Singapore, Indianapolis, Park Avenue Chamber, and Montreal Symphony Orchestras.
Anna Lee’s teachers were Masao Kawasaki and Cho-Liang Lin at the Juilliard School Pre-College Division, Ani Kavafian at the Yale School of Music, and Miriam Fried and Don Weilerstein in Boston, where she completed her Comparative Literature degree at Harvard College. Currently, she is an Artist in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel. She has also taught as a chamber music teacher, most notably at the Kronberg Academy's Mit Musik—Miteinander festival in Germany, Classical Music Institute San Antonio in Texas, and Festival MusicAlp in France.
She plays on a violin by Giovanni Tononi (ca. 1690), which was made available to her by the Ravinia Festivals Steans Music Institute.
2014-17 Anna has been studying at Kronberg Academy with Ana Chumachenco. These studies are funded by the Yehudi Menuhin Scholarship.