Artists

American violinist Sean Lee is one of few violinists who dare to perform the complete 24 Caprices of Niccolò Paganini in concert. A recipient of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant, Lee has captured the attention of audiences worldwide, with performances described by The New York Times as “breathtakingly beautiful”.

Lee’s ongoing educational YouTube series, “Paganini POV”, utilizes modern technology to share a unique perspective on violin playing. In January 2022, Lee and pianist Peter Dugan released selections from Niccolò Paganini’s 24 Caprices as arranged by Robert Schumann, as an EP and video series titled “Paganini X Schumann: 9 Caprices”, after giving the first performance of the complete 24 Caprices in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s 52-year history. 

Lee’s debut album was released by EMI Classics, and reached the iTunes top 20 classical bestsellers list. In 2018, Lee collaborated with pianist Peter Dugan to release a second album, SONGBOOK, featuring songs from all over the world from classical to jazz. As a soloist, Lee has appeared with orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, Israel Camerata Jerusalem, and Utah Symphony, and recital appearances have taken him to Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Festival di Carro Paganiniano of Italy, and Vienna’s Konzerthaus. A top prizewinner at the “Premio Paganini” International Violin Competition, Lee embraces the legacy of his late mentor, violinist Ruggiero Ricci, who made the first solo recording of the 24 Caprices in 1947.

Lee has collaborated in performances with Itzhak Perlman, Sir James Galway, Deborah Voigt, and members of the Emerson and Guarneri String Quartets. With the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Lee has performed numerous times at Lincoln Center, as well as on tour internationally at venues including the Lobkowicz Palace in Prague, Czech Republic; LG Arts Center in Seoul, Korea; National Theater in Taipei, Taiwan; and the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia. Lee also performed for PBS’s first international production of Live from Lincoln Center, “Odyssey: The Chamber Music Society in Greece”.

Lee currently resides in the Capital Region of New York State. Born in Los Angeles, Lee studied in Southern California with Robert Lipsett of the Colburn Conservatory, and with violin legend Ruggiero Ricci. Moving to New York City at age 17, Lee studied at the Juilliard School with the internationally acclaimed Itzhak Perlman. At the Juilliard School, Lee earned both Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees, and received the William Schuman Prize upon graduation.

Lee performs on violins made by Samuel Zygmuntowicz in 1995 and David Bague in 1999, and a bow made circa 1890 by Joseph Arthur Vigneron.

In 2013, Alex Wun studied with Andrew Ma in the Junior Program of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and is currently a final year Bachelor of Music student with Professor Gabriel Kwok. He has participated masterclasses by Victor Rosenbaum, Pascal Roge, Wojciech Switala, Arie Vardi, Kun Woo Paik and Yoheved Kaplinsky.

Alex took part in the Summer Academy at Mozarteum University, HKEMA International Music Festival and Tianjin Julliard Piano Festival. In 2023 summer, he performed at the Palais Wittgenstein in Dusseldorf.

 In 2023, Alex won the Grand Prize of the HKGNA Int’l Music Competition, First Prize of the 87th Steinway & Sons International Youth Piano Competition – Hong Kong and Macau regional finals, First Prize of the 5th International Liszt Ferenc Competition and the European Star International Festival Young Artist Award.

Anson Leung is an 18-year-old violinist, studying at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) under the tutelage of Mr. Ivan Chan with a full scholarship under the HKAPA Recruitment & Outstanding Scholarships, and a graduate of Diocesan Boys’ School. He has been learning violin under the tutelage of Mr. Calvin Wong and Ms. Feng Jia and has attained Diploma in Music Performance LTCL with distinction at the age of 12 and ATCL at the age of 10.

He has won various awards in music competitions, including the first prize of the Young Artists Violin Division, first prize and second prize of the Young Artists Chamber Music Division in the Hong Kong Generation Next Arts Ltd (HKGNA) International Music Competition 2023, the first prize of violin concerto age 13 or under, second prize of violin concerto age 19 or under and first prize of viola junior in the Hong Kong School Music Festival. He also won the champion of AIMA Young Soloist (Strings) Scholarship Group in 2023, first prize of the International Fringe Festival Prize Open Class in 2023, first prize of Violin Own Choice Class and first prize of String Open Class in Hong Kong International Music & Arts Festival (HKIMAA) in 2023, first prize of the Hong Kong Intercultural Young Musicians Competition in 2022, the champion of string professional in the Hong Kong Music Talent Music Competition, third place of open class from Hong Kong Youth Catania Music Competition and silver in the Wilh. Steinberg Youth Violinist Competition.

Anson actively participates in local and overseas concerts and performances. In July 2023, he participated in the Beijing Hong Kong TsingHua Summer Music Camp (北京香港學生清華音樂營) as concertmaster and soloist in Beijing and performed Vivaldi Concerto for 4 Violins with famous violinist Lü Siqing. During the music camp, he also had the opportunity to have a masterclass with him. He also joined the concert tour with Hong Kong Children’s Symphony Orchestra to China in 2016 and the Europe performance tour with the Symphony Orchestra of Diocesan Boys’ School in 2019.

Anson was the vice-chairman of the Diocesan Boys’ School music department, and he was the second violin principal of the Symphony Orchestra and assistant concertmaster of the String Orchestra at Diocesan Boys’ School. He was also the violist of school chamber and assisted in supervising regular practice of the school orchestra viola section members.

Born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, violist Martin Kuo Tzu-Ming started learning classical music with his music teacher mother on the piano. He then followed the footsteps of his elder brother to learn the violin at six.

Martin first played in a quartet when he was studying in middle school. He has developed a strong enthusiasm for chamber music since then. He went to the music class of Kaohsiung Municipal Kaohsiung Senior High School, majoring in violin and minoring in piano performance. In 2016, Martin was awarded a full scholarship at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts to study with Associate Professor Ivan Chan, the former leader of Miami String Quartet. He gained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in the academy. His previous teachers included Chinn-Horng Nanette Chen, Li I-ching, Jung-Shin Fang, Jing-Ying Zhen. He also studied in other occasions with Ida Kavafian, Benny Kim, Cho-Liang Lin, Ning Feng, Shizuka Ishikawa, Gregory Maytan, Evgeny Zvonnikov, Gregory Plays and Vesselin Paraschkevov among the others.

Tzu-Ming was awarded a full scholarship to CICA Summer Music Festival in Dallas, Texas in 2012 and was the winner of the concerto competition there. He was also the winner of the concerto competition at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and performed Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy with the orchestra in 2018. Martin has also attended Meadowmount School of Music 2017, Ken Blossom Music Festival 2018 and Heifetz International Music Institute 2019 with full scholarship.

Previously a member of the Virtus Quartet in 2016/17, Martin joined the Cong Quartet as an interim member in 2018/19, which participated in various international chamber events such as the Robert Mann String Quartet Institute in New York and Salzburg Mozart International Chamber Competition in Tokyo. In 2021, he won the HKGNA International Competition Chamber Music Division Grand Prize.

Martin is an active performer and teacher in Hong Kong.

Erica Wong began studying cello from an early age with Juanita Wong under the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts Junior Music Programme. She is now studying with the support of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Scholarships for a Bachelor of Music (Honours) Degree with Ray Wang at the Academy. Erica is an active performer, having played in masterclasses by distinguished cellists such as David Strange, Rhonda Rider, Giovanni Gnocchi, Yeonjin Kim and Trey Lee. She has appeared as soloist with the Academy Symphony Orchestra. She also participates enthusiastically in orchestral and chamber activities, having joined music camps including the Pacific Cello Orchestra, the European Music Institute Vienna, the Hong Kong Youth Philharmonia and the Hong Kong Music Summer Orchestra. Erica achieved distinction in LTCL in 2017 and has received several awards in the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival Cello Solo and Sonata categories. She placed second with her piano trio in the chamber category of the 2021 Hong Kong Generation Next Arts Competition and was part of the HKAPA’s representative chamber team in the Shanghai University School of Music’s “Shanghai Spring” performances.