Lee Piano Festival wraps up with performances
Twenty-eight outstanding young pianists have been on the campus of Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, since June 24 while they participate in the 14th annual International Piano Festival and Competition.
The festival wraps up this weekend with several concerts open to the public, performed by festival students as well as guest artists.
Performers and teachers Rae De Lisle, Pei-Chun Liao, Dr. Alex McDonald and Ann Schein have been guest artists, along with Lee faculty Dr. Joong Han (Jonathan) Jung, Dr. ChoEun Lee, Dr. Cahill Smith and Dr. Phillip Thomas. Smith and Thomas are artistic director and executive director of the festival, respectively.
De Lisle, associate professor of piano at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, also serves as the artistic director of the Wallace International Piano Festival.
Liao, assistant professor of piano at University of Taipei in Taiwan, performs internationally as a concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician.
McDonald is an American concert artist who has soloed with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Orquesta Sinfonica del Estado de Mexico and the Utah Symphony Orchestra, among others.
Schein has been a concert artist since her 1957 debut in Mexico City. Since then she has performed thousands of concerts across every continent and played with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, among others.
Jung joined the faculty of Lee’s School of Music as an assistant professor of piano in 2017. In addition to teaching, Jung performs regularly across the U.S. He has played with Eastman Philharmonic Orchestra and Korean Philharmonic Orchestra of New Zealand. As a composer, Jung’s pieces have been performed in Brevard Music Center, Carnegie Hall and Hatch Recital Hall.
An assistant professor of collaborative piano and vocal coaching, Lee joined the School of Music faculty in 2017. She has given numerous performances in Australia, Austria, Italy, Korea, New Zealand, and the U.S. In the summers of 2016 and 2017, she was invited to the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, and will return this year.
See the accompanying box for this weekend’s schedule of free performances open to the public.
For more information about the Lee University International Piano Festival and Competition, contact the Department of Musicianship Studies at 423-614-8264 or visit www.leeupiano.com.