Sinae Lee

In Korea, Sinae studied piano at Yewon School and Seoul Arts High School. While studying in Seoul, she won many prestigious prizes, such as the Chung-Ang Daily Newspaper competition, and the Korean Music Association for Overseas Competitors. After graduating from Seoul National University with Distinction, Sinae was offered a place to study at Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama (RSAMD, now RCS) with a full scholarship awarded by the Inches Carr Trust, obtaining her MMus with Distinction one year later. Her prizewinning career continued in the UK where she won the London Intercollegiate Beethoven competition as well as numerous RCS Prizes including A.Ramsay-Calder Debussy Prize, Bach Prize, Governors’ Recital Prize, Concerto Competition Prize, Ian D.Watt Award and the Dunbar-Geber Prize. Sinae studied piano with Hwa-Young Yi, and Hyoung-Joon Chang in Korea, and Philip Jenkins in the UK.

In 2006, Sinae recorded Karol Szymanowski’s complete piano works on four CDs, released by Divine Art Record Company. These recordings marked the first complete CD set, including the posthumously published Prelude in C sharp minor. This marked her début recording and received highly acclaimed reviews from Gramophone (Recommended Recording), BBC Music Magazine (Benchmark Recording), MusicWeb International (Recording of the Month, November 2006), Pianist Magazine (Recommended Recording), All Music Guide (Classical Editors’ Best of the Year2007) and Res Musica. Some of the pieces from her Szymanowski CDs have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Radio New Zealand and Busan KBS TV. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of her Szymanowski CD release, Sinae gave Szymanowski concert tours in Glasgow (RCS), Dublin (Royal Irish Academy of Music) and Seoul (Seoul National University and Dongduk Womens University) between October and December 2016. In 2011, Sinae performed the complete Années de Pèlerinage by Liszt in the UK and Korea, celebrating the composer’s 200th anniversary. A studio recording was released by Nimbus Alliance in July 2012 and received rave reviews from The Classical Reviewer (Best of 2012) and MusicWeb International (Recording of the Month, April 2014).

As a keen collaborator, Sinae has been enjoying performances with her music colleagues at RCS as well as violinist Ilya Gringolts and double bassist Knut Erik Sundquist. Sinae has also been in demand for giving world premieres for solo piano and ensemble works by living composers such as Marek Pasieczny, Gordon McPherson, Rory Boyle, Vera Stanojevic, Jay Capperauld and many more. In July 2016, Sinae recorded an original composition by Jay Capperauld’s ‘Swan Lake’ for a BBC Arts documentary film. Sinae is also a pianist for Glasgow New Music Expedition (GNME), a contemporary music ensemble led by Jessica Cottis. Sinae’s past prize adjudications include the Karol Szymanowski International Music Competition in Katowice, Poland, Olga Kern International Piano Competition (Screening Jury),  Eurovision Young Musicians Semi-Finals in Festival Theatre in Edinburgh, Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Piano Scholarships at Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), BBC Young Musician of the Year (preliminary round) at City Hall (Glasgow), Scottish International Youth Piano Competition, A Ramsay-Calder Debussy Prize, Walcer Prize, Peter Lindsay Miller Prize for Piano Duo, Beethoven Prize for Junior Conservatoire at RCS.