Lee-Chin Siow
Lee-Chin Siow, violin
Praised by the American Record Guide as “a distinguished cultural asset of international stature”, and London’s The Strad as a “trailblazing role model for string players,” Lee-Chin’s Gold Medal victory at the 1994 Henryk Szeryng International Violin Competition launched her solo career on the international classical music stage, wowing audiences in more than 20 countries across five continents from Carnegie Hall to Osaka Symphony Hall. Her performances have been broadcast on BBC World News, China Central TV, America’s CBS, National Public Radio, and Singapore’s MediaCorp.
Lauded by USA’s Fanfare Magazine for her ability to “seduce listeners…with just a few notes”, Lee-Chin touches audiences with her charismatic stage presence in intimate recitals as well as the grandest of stages. As soloist, Lee-Chin has collaborated with renowned orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Ludwigsburg Festival Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, Dallas Symphony, National Orchestra of Ukraine, National Symphony Orchestra of Chile, Avignon Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra; as well as at major concert halls and festivals in Asia, Europe and Americas including the Royal Albert Hall, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Beijing Concert Hall, City Hall in Hong Kong, Esplanade Concert Hall, Hangzhou Grand Theatre, KonzertHaus Vienna, Petronas Concert Hall, Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre, Suzhou Arts and Culture Centre, Tchaikovsky Hall; the Aspen Music Festival, Banff Music Festival, Cervantino Music Festival, Kansai International Performing Arts Festival, Lucerne International Music Festival, Music Fest Perugia, and Singapore Arts Festival.
In 2015, she took centrestage with a performance at the South East Asian Games Opening Ceremony for a live audience of 40,000 and reaching many more through web broadcasts. Equally proud of her Asian roots, she also actively champions the music of Asian composers to the West. Recent collaborations have resulted her world premiere performance of Air, a piece specially written for her by Chinese composer Yao Chen, who has been commissioned by Grammy-award artists, at the City of London Festival. In 2017, she premiered Air and Singaporean composer Kam Kee Yong’s Chinese Rhapsody at Carnegie Hall.
Lee-Chin traces her musical lineage to great violinists and composers including Eugène Ysaÿe, Henryk Wieniawksi and Henri Vieuxtemps, through their disciples and her teachers at Curtis, Oberlin and Mannes: Aaron Rosand, Jascha Brodsky, Felix Galimir, Almita and Roland Vamos. Today, she continues their pedagogical tradition in her work with young people all over the world from Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music, Chicago Institute of Music, to the Singapore National Youth Orchestra and as violin professor at the College of Charleston.
Lee-Chin’s CD Songs My Father Taught Me was a HMV bestseller and picked for Fanfare Magazine’s 2009 Want List. In 2016, her book From Clementi to Carnegie received a glowing review in The Strad for her “infectious mix of passion, virtuosity and …sheer determination”.
For her artistic excellence and outstanding achievements, Lee-Chin has been honored with the Singapore Youth Award for Excellence in the Arts, the National Arts Council’s Young Artist Award, the Fellowship in Music Performance by the South Carolina Arts Commission in the US, and most recently, the Meritorious Award by the Composers and Authors Society of Singapore (COMPASS) for her contributions to the development of music in Singapore.
More info at www.leechin.com