Nicole Lee, a native of Vancouver, Canada, is a pianist acclaimed as both a soloist and a collaborative artist. The Bradenton Herald lauds, “Lee is a consummate artist who exhibits a carefully honed touch with the beauty and refinement of fine porcelain.” As a soloist, she has performed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Sarasota Opera House, the Orpheum in Vancouver, Canada, and for CBC Radio in Ottawa, Canada. She has also performed as soloist with several symphony orchestras, including the Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra, Valparaiso University Symphony Orchestra, South Shore Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Florida West Coast Symphony, and the New Westminster Symphony, and Kalamazoo Philharmonic. Awards include the International Stravinsky Awards Competition, the Pasadena Fine Arts Club Competition, and the Royal Over-Seas League Competition in London.
Lee is also active as a chamber musician. She regularly performs collaborative recitals with vocalists and instrumentalists and especially enjoys the Piano Duo recitals she has performed with colleague Joseph Bognar for the past 10 years. Ms. Lee has performed on the concert series at the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Saugatuck Hempy Keyboard series, Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago and the Mendelssohn Club Concert Series in Rockford, IL.
Ms. Lee holds B.M. and M.M. degrees in piano performance from the University of Southern California, where she studied with John Perry. She was selected as the outstanding graduate of the Keyboard Studies Department in both her graduate and undergraduate programs. She also holds performance and teacher’s diplomas from the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto and Licentiate and Fellowship diplomas from the Trinity College of London. She is an Ambassador for the Samuel Vargas Foundation for which she conducts podcasts, master classes and worskhops. Ms. Lee is on the faculty of Lutheran Summer Music and a member of the music faculty at Indiana University, South Bend, Notre Dame and Valparaiso University.