“Hyuk Lee, a solar pianist, who impresses with his dazzling mastery of the instrument and his innate sense of dramaturgy”
CLASSICA, 2022 Paris
Pianist Hyuk Lee was born in Seoul in 2000 and began playing both the piano and violin simultaneously at the age of three.
He made his orchestral debut at nine, performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto in F major, K.413 with the Mirabell Chamber Orchestra at the Mirabell Palace in Salzburg. Since then, Hyuk has performed regularly with orchestras around the world at prestigious concert venues such as Théâtre du Châtelet, Warsaw Philharmonic, Rudolfinum, Smetana Hall, Great Hall of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Tokyo Kioi Hall among others.
After winning the First Grand Prix at the prestigious Long-Thibaud International Piano Competition in 2022 in Paris with his brilliant interpretation of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No.2, Hyuk Lee left a strong mark on the classical music world as a solo musician, an artist with an extensive concerto repertoire, a frequent chamber collaborator.
In the 2023-2024 season, Hyuk Lee performed a vast variety of repertoire with numerous orchestras. Highlights include a Japan tour with NHK Symphony Orchestra (Grieg’s Piano Concerto Op.16), Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal de Versailles (Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.5), Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra (Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No.5), Katowice Philharmonic Orchestra (Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.4).
In Korea, he has appeared with the KBS Symphony Orchestra and the Korean National Symphony Orchestra.
He has also performed at prestigious festivals such as Le Concert de Paris on the Bastille Day held under the iconic Eiffel Tower with 300,000 spectators, Festival de Radio France in Montpellier, Duszniki-Zdrój Chopin Festival, Nohant Chopin Festival, Le Touquet Les Piano Foiles, Gstaad New Year Festival, Festival Les Nuits du Piano d’Erbalunga, Gdańska Jesien Pianistyczna, Łazienki Open-Air Chopin concert, New Year Eve’s concert at the Seoul Arts Center.
As a part of the Paris Cultural Olympics leading up to the Olympic Games 2024, Hyuk gave a special recital featuring an all-Chopin program at the Palais Royal which was recorded by French Television and broadcast across Europe.
On the same day, he performed Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.1 with Orchestre de la Garde républicaine in the Cathedral of Les Invalides in Paris.
In season 2024-2025, Hyuk Lee makes his debut at prestigious venues worldwide, including Teatro Colón, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Rudolfinum, Polish National Opera with several renowned orchestras such as Buenos-Aires Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Philharmonie, Sinfonia Varsovia, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio. He will also reunite with L’Orchestre de la Garde républicaine, Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal de Versailles among others.
A passionate chamber musician, Hyuk regularly performs piano duo recitals with his brother, Hyo Lee. In the 2023-2024 season, the Lee brothers played recitals in the Warsaw Philharmonic, Łódź Rubinstein Philharmonic, Gdańsk Frederic Chopin Philharmonic, and Salle Cortot in Paris, among others. Their recital program, which features works by Astor Piazzolla, Darius Milhaud, George Gershwin, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Nikolai Kapustin, has been met with great acclaim from both audiences and critics.
In celebration of the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s iconic 9th Symphony, the Lee brothers will tour Poland with a program that includes Liszt’s transcription of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony for two pianos, Ravel’s La Valse (transcribed for two pianos by the composer), and Arthur Benjamin’s Six Caribbean Pieces for two pianos.
Hyuk studied at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory under Professor Vladimir Ovchinnikov and later received his Artist Diploma from the École Normale de Musique de Paris, graduating with the prestigious Prix Cortot as the best pianist of the year.
Throughout his studies, he won numerous medals at the prestigious piano competitions of the world. Including First Prize in the Paderewski Competition (Bydgoszcz, Poland) in 2016 making history as the youngest participant to win, Third Prize in the Hamamatsu Competition in 2018 (Hamamatsu, Japan), Finalist in the Warsaw Chopin Competition 2021 and First Prize in Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris 2022.
Apart from his dedication to the piano, Hyuk Lee is also passionate about the violin and chess. He continues his violin studies and, when not performing, participates in international chess tournaments, holding an International FIDE rating.