Chihchun Chi-sun Lee Chihchun Chi-sun Lee
“Taiwanese composer Chihchun Chi-sun Lee explores a variety of alternative textures and unusual techniques in the most striking work.” —“Gramophone” (UK). Germany's “Märkische Allgemeine” described Lee's music as “a drama of historical time and allusion.” The critic Ilia Castellanos wrote: “The far-reaching importance of what Chihchun Chi-sun Lee has preserved in this piece lies beyond what the world can currently assess… yet through the work's powerful musical narrative and rich orchestral color, it has awakened new understanding.”
A composer from Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Chihchun Chi-sun Lee earned a doctorate in composition from the University of Michigan. Formerly composer-in-residence of Chai Found Music Workshop, Lee is currently an invited professor in the College of Music at Ewha Womans University in Korea. Lee has received many internationally recognized composition prizes and grants, including first prize at the first Brandenburg International Composition Competition in Germany, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a commission from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, support from Taiwan's National Culture and Arts Foundation, the second SCI/ASCAP Commission Competition prize, the International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM) Theodore Front Prize, first prizes from contemporary composers' societies and leagues, and an international women composers' prize. Lee's solo album “Willow Catkins” (柳絮) was nominated for Best Composer in the traditional and art music category of the Golden Melody Awards.
Major performances have taken place at Carnegie Hall in New York, the National Concert Hall in Taiwan, the National Theater of Korea and the National Gugak Center, the National Centre for the Performing Arts in China, the 2010 Winter Olympics and many leading international contemporary music festivals. Ensembles that have worked with Lee include the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra, the Kyiv Philharmonic Orchestra in Ukraine, the Czech Symphony Orchestra, the Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra in Germany, the National Gugak Orchestra of Korea, the National Symphony Orchestra (Taiwan), Chai Found Music Workshop, Music From China in New York, the Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra, the National Chinese Orchestra Taiwan, the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra and the Taipei Chinese Orchestra. Lee's music has been performed around the world, in Australia, Austria, the United States, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Israel, Italy, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Poland, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Costa Rica, Ukraine, China and Hong Kong.