Photo credit: Alan Lim Studio
Praised by the American Record Guide as “a distinguished cultural asset of international stature”, and London’s The Strad as a “trailblazing role model for string players,” Siow Lee Chin’s Gold Medal victory at the 1994 Henryk Szeryng International Violin Competition launched her career as Singapore’s first violin soloist to make a mark and forge a solo career on the international classical music stage, wowing audiences in more than 20 countries across five continents from Carnegie Hall to Osaka Symphony Hall. Her performances been broadcast on BBC World News, China Central TV, America’s CBS, National Public Radio, and Singapore’s MediaCorp.
Lauded by USA’s Fanfare Magazine for her ability to “seduce listeners…with just a few notes”, Lee Chin touches audiences with her charismatic stage presence in intimate recitals as well as the grandest of stages. As soloist, Lee Chin has collaborated with renowned orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Ludwigsburg Festival Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, Dallas Symphony, National Orchestra of Ukraine, National Symphony Orchestra of Chile, Avignon Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra; as well as at major concert halls and festivals in Asia, Europe and Americas including the Royal Albert Hall, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Beijing Concert Hall, City Hall in Hong Kong, Esplanade Concert Hall, Hangzhou Grand Theatre, KonzertHaus Vienna, Petronas Concert Hall, Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre, Suzhou Arts and Culture Centre, Tchaikovsky Hall; the Aspen Music Festival, Banff Music Festival, Cervantino Music Festival, Kansai International Performing Arts Festival, Lucerne International Music Festival, Music Fest Perugia, and Singapore Arts Festival. She has performed in the presence of celebrities and dignitaries from Elton John to former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and in June 2015, she took centrestage performing at the South East Asian Games Opening Ceremony for a live audience of 40,000 and reaching many more through web broadcasts.
Lee Chin traces her musical lineage to Eugène Ysaÿe (the King of the Violin), Henri Vieuxtemps and Henryk Wieniawkski through their disciples and her teachers at Curtis, Oberlin and Mannes: Aaron Rosand, Jascha Brodsky, Felix Galimir, Almita and Roland Vamos. Today, she continues their pedagogical tradition in her work with young people all over the world from Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music, Chicago Institute of Music, to the Singapore National Youth Orchestra and as violin professor at College of Charleston. Equally proud of her Asian roots, Lee Chin bridges the East and West, personalising familiar favourites with Asian motifs and introducing the music of Asian composers to the West. In the 2015 City of London Festival, she performed the world premiere of Air, a piece specially written for her by Chinese composer Yao Chen, which showcased the evolution of violin virtuosity from Bach to the present. In 2017, she premiered Air and Singaporean composer Kam Kee Yong’s Chinese Rhapsody at Carnegie Hall.
Lee Chin’s CD Songs My Father Taught Me was a HMV bestseller and picked for Fanfare Magazine’s Want List. Her first book From Clementi to Carnegie is published by Straits Times Press. For more information, visit www.leechin.com