Violinist SooBeen Lee has been praised by The Washington Post for her “poised presence, a luxurious sound, spot-on intonation, and a bow arm that surely will be the envy of her peers”. She has already appeared as soloist with every major Korean orchestra, including the Seoul and Busan Philharmonics and KBS (Korean Broadcasting System) Symphony Orchestra. Other distinctions include performances for former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, at the Blue House for the King and Queen of Malaysia, with China’s Wuhan Philharmonic at the Seoul Arts Center, and for many state guests in Korea. 

As First Prize Winner of the 2014 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, SooBeen was also honored with The Slomovic Soloist Prize for support for her Washington, DC recital debut at the Kennedy Center, the Michaels Award, which provided support for her New York recital debut, and three performance prizes including the Korean Concert Society Prize. SooBeen made her New York concerto debut performing the Chausson Poème with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Alice Tully Hall. 

Additional performances have included the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the Gulf Coast and Rockford Symphonies, the Mendelssohn Concerto with the Plymouth Philharmonic, the Sibelius Concerto with the Longwood Symphony, the Brahms Concerto with the Palm Beach Symphony, and recitals for Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Southern Adventist University, Buffalo Chamber Music Society, Abbey Church Events and the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC. This season, SooBeen performs as soloist with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and in recital at the Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota, Colgate University, and the Harriman-Jewell Series.

SooBeen’s festival engagements have included appearances at the Heifetz Music Festival, Chopin Music Festival in Poland, City of London Festival, Busan International Music Festival, Great Mountains International Music Festival, Seoul Spring Festival, and Japan’s Ishikawa Summer Music Academy, where she worked with YCA alumnus Koichiro Harada.  

In the coming season SooBeen will make concerto appearances with the Aiken Symphony and the Oregon Symphony. She will be presented in recital and chamber music performances by the Tri-County Concerts Association (Wayne, PA), FPC Concerts (Myrtle Beach, SC), and the Morgan Library & Museum. As part of Young Concert Artists’ special season finale performance at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall in May 2023, SooBeen will perform alongside fellow YCA roster artists and distinguished alumni including pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, violinist Chee-Yun, and harpsichordist Anthony Newman. 

SooBeen began studying the violin at the age of four. At eight years old she won the National Competition of the Korean Chamber Orchestra, she won First Prize at the Russia International Youth Violin Competition the following year, and she captured First Prize at the 2013 Moscow International David Oistrakh Violin Competition. At the 2022 Indianapolis Competition SooBeen was awarded the Special Prize “Best Performance of a Work by Paganini, Ernst or Milstein” for her performance of Milstein’s ‘Paganiniana Variations’. SooBeen currently studies with Miriam Fried at the New England Conservatory, where she performed the Sibelius Violin Concerto as winner of their Concerto Competition.

SooBeen plays a Giuseppe Guadagnini Cremona 1794 on loan from Kumho Cultural Foundation.

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YCA represents violinist SooBeen Lee for worldwide engagements. Please contact us for more information.