Korea-born cellist Song Hee Lee joined the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in September 2022.
Prior to this, she served as the principal cellist of the Verbier Festival Orchestra, Music Academy of the West Orchestra, Manhattan School of Music Orchestra, and Jacobs School of Music Philharmonic Orchestra. In recent years, during the pandemic, she also served as a guest principal with the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra, and an assistant principal with the Tongyeong International Music Festival Orchestra and Symphony S.O.N.G. in Korea.
As a musician, Lee is a recipient of Verbier Festival Awards and a finalist of the Kirishima International Music Festival Competition. Lee has collaborated with highly esteemed artists such as Menahem Pressler, Kurt Masur, James Conlon, Plácido Domingo, Jeremy Denk, Richard O’Neill, and Quatuor Ébène. She has also performed under the baton of many conductors including Gustavo Dudamel, Alan Gilbert, Valery Gergiev, Fabio Luisi, and Gerard Schwarz. She has frequently performed in both the US and South Korea in well-known venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Seoul Arts Center, and Lotte Concert Hall.
Lee studied with Kyung-Ok Park and Hyun-shil Kim in her youth in Korea, and started her undergraduate studies at Colburn School with Ronald Leonard after she graduated from Seoul Arts High School. She received her bachelor’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music, with a full scholarship, under David Geber, and began her studies with Timothy Eddy at The Juilliard School soon after for her master’s degree. Lee was in the process of obtaining her performance degree in orchestral studies at the Jacobs School of Music with Eric Kim right before she joined the TSO.
Aside from playing cello, Lee loves coffee, baking cakes and cookies, playing golf, swimming, sunbathing, and animals.