Born in South Korea in 1985, violinist YURA LEE has enjoyed an exceptional career since coming to the United States in 1994. In recent seasons she has appeared with many prestigious orchestras, among them the New York Philharmonic, the Baltimore Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Tokyo Philharmonic, and the Monte Carlo Philharmonic. She made her Carnegie Hall debut with Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony Orchestra in 1999/2000.

In the summer of 2003 she toured as soloist with the New York Philharmonic and conductor Lorin Maazel, performing concerts in New York City, at the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari, Italy, and at the Vail Music Festival. Also in 2003 she performed with the Chicago Symphony and Christoph Eschenbach at the Ravinia Festival.

As recitalist and chamber musician, Lee has performed at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall and at nine celebrated concert halls in Europe as part of Carnegie Hall's ECHO (European Concert Hall Organization) series. She has appeared at the Verbier Festival with Roger Vignoles, Emanuel Ax, Frans Helmerson, and Joseph Silverstein, and regularly performs at the Caramoor Festival in New York.

Lee began her violin studies at age four with Namyoon Kim in Seoul, Korea. Her extraordinary talent was apparent by age five, when she won a top prize at the prestigious Hankook Ilbo Competition in Seoul. Two years later she made her debut with Korea's leading orchestra, the KBS Sym-phony, and in 1994 came to the U.S. to study at the Juilliard School with Hyo Kang and the late Dorothy DeLay. Lee now studies with Miriam Fried and Paul Biss and attends the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. She plays the "Mary Portman" Guarneri del Gesù, Cremona, 1735, on extended loan from Clement Arrison through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.