Samuel Lee, first prize winner of the BMI International Conducting Competition in Bucharest and the International Conducting Competition in Taipei, has recently been appointed Assistant Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, beginning in the 2022–23 season.
Guest conducting engagements include his debut at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg with the Hamburg Camerata and in Gewandhaus with Leipziger Symphoniker, as well as with Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt State Orchestra, Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra, Hamburg Camerata, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Bucharest Symphony Orchestra, Arad Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Korean Symphony Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra and the SAC Festival Orchestra. Lee was also a Conducting Fellow with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in 2021 and 2022, where he worked with conductors Cristian Măcelaru, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Octavio Más-Arocas and Marin Alsop.
Lee has assisted Cristian Măcelaru in concerts with the WDR Sinfonieorchester in Cologne, Munich and Salzburg, as well as Vladimir Jurowski for his concert with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in Seoul.
As a Conducting Fellow and participant in masterclasses of conductors such as Daniele Gatti, Riccardo Muti, Neeme Järvi, Markus Stenz and Stefan Blunier, he gained deeper insights into the art of conducting.
In 2019 he was invited to conduct the Orchestra Giovanile di Siena as part of an audition for ’for the Chigiana International Music Festival in Siena, overseen by Daniele Gatti; for this performance, he led Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite, Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, and Ravel’s Ma mère l’Oye. He was also invited to the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy in Tokyo Vol. 1, organized by the Tokyo Spring Festival, where he conducted Verdi’s Rigoletto.
Since 2016 Samuel Lee has been the chief conductor of the C.P.E. Bach Musikgymnasium orchestra Berlin. He and the orchestra have been regularly invited to the Berlin Philharmonie and Konzerthaus Berlin for subscription concerts. He also served as a viola professor at Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy” in Leipzig, Germany until 2022.
As a violist, Lee was invited to perform with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Southern German Philharmonic, Zabrze Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic, KBS Symphony, Korean Symphony and at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Music Festival.
From 2009 until 2017, Lee was the violist of Novus String Quartet, which performed and was invited to renowned venues such as Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, Vienna Musikverein, Cologne Philharmonie and Suntory Hall. He also was the second prize winner of the 61st International Music Competition of ARD Munich and first prize winner of the Salzburg International Mozart Competition.
Lee is an alumnus of Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin where he studied viola with Prof. Tabea Zimmermann (BM, MM, Konzertexamen), and orchestral conducting with Prof. Christian Ehwald (BM, MM). Lee completed Konzertexamen in orchestral conducting from Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg (Prof. Ulrich Windfuhr).