Koeun Grace Lee performs a program entitled “The Multilingual Piano,” blending the Western classical piano music tradition and her Korean identity through works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann, Nikolai Kapustin, David Burge, and Isang Yun. Traditional sonata forms appear in Beethoven’s Piano Sonata, op. 90 and Schumann’s Toccata, op. 7. The opening theme of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring is quoted in a harmonious combination between jazz elements and Russian Romanticism in Kapustin’s Variations, op. 41. Korean traditional music and culture arise through the prism of Western contemporary techniques in Burge’s Go-Hyang. The twelve-tone technique of the Second Viennese School and aspects of Korean traditional music merit attention in Yun’s Five Pieces for Piano. In this program, Lee highlights the cultural versatility that the piano offers.

A South Korean native, Lee returns to Pianoforte for our 10th-anniversary season. She is an avid performer, educator, and conference lecturer across the U.S. She holds a doctorate of music in piano performance and a postgraduate certificate in music theory pedagogy from UNC Greensboro, a graduate degree in piano performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music, and an undergraduate degree in piano performance and pedagogy and an artist diploma from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. She has performed in master classes of internationally renowned pianists Kevin Kenner, Boaz Sharon, William Westney, Simone Dinnerstein, Jacques Després, Pascal Rogé, Jeremy Denk, Dror Biran, Joel Hastings, André Watts, and Byron Janis.

Lee has presented numerous lecture-performances at conferences of the College Music Society in the U.S. and South Korea. She has been a featured performer and lecturer at the Composition in Asia International Symposium & Festival, and guest artist at the University of South Florida-Tampa and many other venues. She will be recording The Songs of Florida Composers in 2019. She is on the piano faculty at Brevard College, Mars Hill University, and the Academy for the Arts at First Baptist Church of Asheville, and also serves as music director at Oakley United Methodist Church. She is an active member of Asheville Area Piano Forum, Music Teachers National Association, College Music Society, and Suzuki Association of the Americas.

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