Missoula, MT– On Saturday, March 2, 2024 at 7:30pm and Sunday, March 3, 2024 at 3pm violinist Kristin Lee will be the featured soloist with the Missoula Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Music Director Julia Tai –– the first female music director in the Missoula Symphony Orchestra’s history –– at Dennison Theatre at University of Montana (32 Campus Drive).
Lee will be the featured soloist in a performance of Vivian Fung’s Violin Concerto No. 1. The concerts will also include Dvořák’s In Nature's Realm Overture, Op.91 Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 "Pastorale," and the world premiere of Nothing Gold Can Stay by Missoula composer Scott Billadaeu.
Vivian Fung’s Violin Concerto No. 1 was the result of an idea posed by Kristin Lee back in 2009, during rehearsals for a performance, Fung took Lee up on a proposal to write a piece for her. The musical foundations the new work were jointly inspired by Fung’s tour of Bali with a Balinese gamelan and her friendship with Lee, who had accompanied Fung to Bali with interest in experiencing what Fung describes as “the sounds that have moved [her]”, as well as Lee “wanting to understand where [Fung’s] ideas came from.”
Fung says of the work: “The concerto draws on the sights, sounds, and memories of Bali that have remained in my heart from the tour, as well as my getting to know Kristin [Lee], her firebrand style of playing, and, complementing that, the intense lyricism that she expresses as well. The work is in one continuous movement with several sections.
Kristin Lee’s accolades and sheer virtuosity as a violinist make any opportunity to witness her perform live an occasion worth much excitement. “Her technique is flawless, and she has a sense of melodic shaping that reflects an artistic maturity,” reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Lee has performed as soloist with leading orchestras around the world including The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Nordic Chamber Orchestra of Sweden, Ural Philharmonic of Russia, Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra of China, Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Dominican Republic, and many more.
In all of her performances and in the impressive array of roles she inhabits as a musician, Kristin Lee is dedicated to forging personal connections between audiences and classical music. She performs widely as a member of New York’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, including on tour in Italy, Croatia, Germany, Taiwan, and across the U.S. Always up for adventure, at the Moab Music Festival in Utah, Lee has performed in such unexpected places as rafting down the Colorado River, in a natural rock grotto, and in the magical landscape of the red rock canyons of the area. Lee founded Emerald City Music in Seattle, and as artistic director, presents eclectic, vibrant concert experiences in unusual venues, which leave both performers and audiences mutually transformed. The series was recently deemed "the beacon for the casual-classical movement" (CityArts). She is also committed to the future of classical music as a devoted mentor and educator for the next generation, serving on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as an Assistant Professor of Violin, and teaching in residencies with the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, El Sistema Chamber Music Festival of Venezuela, and Music@Menlo’s Chamber Music Institute, among others.
Born in Seoul, Kristin Lee moved to the United States and studied under prestigious teachers including Sonja Foster, Catherine Cho, Dorothy DeLay, and Itzhak Perlman. Her many honors include awards from the Trondheim Chamber Music Competition, Trio di Trieste Premio International Competition, the SYLFF Fellowship, Dorothy DeLay Scholarship, the Aspen Music Festival’s Violin Competition, the New Jersey Young Artists’ Competition, and the Salon de Virtuosi Scholarship Foundation. She is also the unprecedented First Prize winner of three concerto competitions at The Juilliard School, where she earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. Her violin was crafted in Italy in 1759 by Gennaro Gagliano and is generously loaned to her by Paul & Linda Gridley.
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