American violinist Sean Lee is one of the few artists who perform Niccolò Paganini's complete 24 Caprices—the most demanding music ever written for solo violin. His command of this repertoire runs through a rare lineage. Paganini composed the Caprices as the ultimate test of the instrument and in 1947, Ruggiero Ricci became the first violinist to record all 24 solo. Lee, who studied directly with Ricci, carries that legacy forward into a new century. A recipient of Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Career Grant, Lee performs with a sound The New York Times has called “breathtakingly beautiful,” and has captured the attention of audiences worldwide.
That sense of discovery defines how Lee shares his art. He is completing a full video cycle of the 24 Caprices in Paganini POV, a first-person series that places the viewer behind the violin—a perspective that did not exist in Ricci's era. The project extends one of the defining chapters of his career: in January 2022, after giving the first complete performance of the 24 Caprices in the 52-year history of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Lee and pianist Peter Dugan released Paganini X Schumann: 9 Caprices, an EP and video series of selections arranged by Robert Schumann.
As a soloist, Lee has appeared with orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, Israel Camerata Jerusalem, and Utah Symphony, while his recitals have taken him to Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Italy's Festival di Carro Paganiniano, and Vienna's Konzerthaus. He is a top prizewinner at the Premio Paganini International Violin Competition.
A longtime artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Lee has performed throughout its seasons at Lincoln Center and on tour at venues including the Lobkowicz Palace in Prague, the LG Arts Center in Seoul, the Shanghai Concert Hall, and the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg. He has collaborated with Itzhak Perlman, Sir James Galway, Deborah Voigt, and members of the Emerson and Guarneri String Quartets, and appeared on PBS's first international production of Live from Lincoln Center, “Odyssey: The Chamber Music Society in Greece.” His debut album, released by EMI Classics, reached the iTunes Top 20 classical bestsellers; in 2018, he and Dugan released SONGBOOK, featuring repertoire from around the world, from classical to jazz.
Born in Los Angeles, Lee studied in Southern California with Robert Lipsett of the Colburn Conservatory and with the violin legend Ruggiero Ricci before moving to New York City at age 17 to study with Itzhak Perlman at The Juilliard School. There he earned both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees and received the William Schuman Prize upon graduation. He performs on violins made by Samuel Zygmuntowicz (1995) and David Bague (1999), with a bow made circa 1890 by Joseph Arthur Vigneron, and resides in the Capital Region of New York State.
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Sean Lee is presented in collaboration with Lyrica Chamber Music.
