Overview
Biography
Trey Chui-yee Lee is a cellist. He was born in Hong Kong into a musical family; his mother attended the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing for piano and his two sisters attended the Juilliard School in New York City to study piano and violin. Trey spent much of his youth studying in the United States and moved to Europe to pursue his music career. He currently resides in Berlin, Germany. Lee graduated from the Juilliard School Pre-College Division (1991), Harvard University (BA in Economics 1995) and the Boston New England Conservatory (1998), where he received his Masters in Music. He has subsequently studied at Madrid’s Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofia and the Cologne Musikhochschule in Europe. Among his teachers included Frans Helmerson, Laurence Lesser and Ardyth Alton.
Lee has won major international competitions, including First Prize at the International Antonio Janigro Cello Competition (2004). Prior to winning the Antonio Janigro competition, he has won major prizes at New York’s Naumburg and Helsinki’s Paulo International Competitions. Collaborating with EMI, Lee has released several albums and was a featured soloist on the original EMI-released sound track recording for the German-Taiwan-Hong Kong co-produced film “The Drummer,” which was in competition at the Sundance Film Festival.
Lee was featured in Radio Television Hong Kong's documentary Outstanding Young Chinese Musicians.
Lee has worked with well-known conductors, composers and orchestras worldwide, such as Lorin Maazel, Hannu Lintu, Osmo Vanska, Jun Markl, Bright Sheng, the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Avanti!, Munich Chamber Orchestra, and the Symphony Orchestras of the Romanian Radio and Israel. He is often invited as a featured artist at major events around the world including: a concert initiated by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the United Nations General Assembly Hall, alongside Maestro Lu Jia, composer Tan Dun, and coloratura soprano Sumi Jo; Phoenix Television’s global live broadcast concert with the China Symphony Orchestra at the Beijing National Center for Performing Arts; and Beethoven Orchestra Bonn’s inaugural tour to China.
An advocate of Chinese music and culture, Lee gave the world premiere on October 2012 of Bright Sheng’s latest cello concerto inspired by Dunhuang, one of China’s cultural treasures. He has re-arranged with Taiwanese composer Chaoming Tung the ‘Dream of the Red Chamber Suite,’ based on an original score by Liping Wang about the epic Chinese literary masterpiece, and premiered it with the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra in May 2012. Lee also co-founded Musicus Society in 2010, a charitable organization based in Hong Kong with the mission of promoting cross cultural collaboration through music.
Personal Particulars
- Name in English: Trey Lee Chui-yee
- Name in Chinese: 李垂誼
- Family: Father, Mother, 2 elder sisters
- Marital Status: Single
- Profession: Cello Soloist (Cellist type: Performer; Performing field: Solo, Chamber)
- Birthplace: Hong Kong
- Nationality: Canada
- Current location: Hong Kong
- Date of Birth: 7 March 1973
- Education: Juilliard Music School (Graduated 1992), Harvard University (Economics, 1995)
Education and professional career
Lee graduated from Harvard with an AB in Economics. He subsequently worked at Parthenon as a management consultant for a year, then decided to pursue the cello as his career. He attended the Boston New England Conservatory and received his Masters in Music, then moved to Europe to pursue his career.
Awards
- First Prize at the International Antonio Janigro Cello Competition, 2004
Cello teacher
- Ardyth Alton
- Frans Helmerson (Cellist type: Teacher; Performing field: Solo, Chamber)
- Laurence Lesser (Cellist type: Performer)
