LATROBE, PA. – The Saint Vincent College Concert Series will present Nathan Lee, the 2020 winner of the Bronder Prize for Piano, at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 25, in the Performing Arts Center of the Robert S. Carey Student Center.
Though only 18 years old, Lee has already regularly performed to audiences across the world during a prodigious, award-winning career.
At the age of 14, the Seattle native won First Prize at the Minnesota International Piano e-Competition, before taking top honors in the junior division of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, the second largest piano competition in the U.S.
In 2016, Lee won First Prize at the 2016 Young Concert Artists (YCA) International Auditions, along with 14 additional special prizes. That same year, Lee placed third at the prestigious Cooper International Competition, presented by the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Cleveland Orchestra, earning the opportunity to play a complete concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra.
In addition to his performance with the Cleveland Orchestra, Lee has also appeared as a soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Buffalo Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle (North Carolina), Orquestra Filarmónica de Boca del Rîo in Mexico and Daejeon Philharmonic in Korea.
In 2017, Lee made his New York debut in The Peter Marino Concert, opening the YCA Series at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, before a sold-out, critically acclaimed Kennedy Center debut in Washington, D.C., a co-presentation of YCA and Washington Performing Arts. Most recently, Lee received the Tabor Foundation Award as best pianist at the 2019 Verbier Festival Academy in Switzerland.
In addition to his upcoming engagement at Saint Vincent College, Lee’s schedule this year also includes engagements for the California Center for the Arts Escondido, Grand County (Colorado) Concert Series, Arizona Friends of Chamber Music and the Arts Council of Moore County (North Carolina). He will also appear on the YCA Encores Series at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York in a program that includes YCA composer Chris Rogerson’s “’Til It Was Dark.”
Lee began playing the piano at the age of 6 and made his orchestral debut at the age of 9. In Seattle, he studied with Sasha Starcevich and has also worked with Craig Sheppard, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Ilana Vered. Currently, he is studying at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with Robert McDonald.
At Saint Vincent, Lee will be awarded the Bronder Prize for Piano, created in 2008 to honor the founder of the Saint Vincent Concert Series, Father Joseph Bronder, O.S.B., a concert pianist, piano instructor, classical music presenter and Benedictine priest. Each season, the Bronder Prize for Piano is awarded to an exceptional young pianist at the beginning of his or her career.
Single tickets are $26. Saint Vincent College students, faculty and staff, as well as children 12 and under, will be admitted free of charge. There will be a free meet-and-greet reception with Lee following his performance. Tickets may be reserved by contacting the Saint Vincent Box office at 724-805-2177 or visiting www.stvincent.edu/student-life/music-and-arts/saint-vincent-college-concert-series.
This performance is supported in part by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
Upcoming concerts in the series include Pennsylvania Pipes! Featuring organists Donald Fellows, J. Christopher Pardini and Wesley Parrott on Saturday, Feb. 15 and A Night of Intimate Chamber Music and Conversation with Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra musicians Christopher Wu (violin), Susanne Park (violin), Andrew Wickesburg (viola) and Anne Martindale Williams (cello) on Saturday, March 14.
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PHOTO: Acclaimed pianist Nathan Lee
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