Pesented by the Royal Academy of Music
Christine Lee is the most recent winner of the Isang Yun international competition in Korea as well as a laureate of the first Queen Elisabeth International Cello Competition.
Christine began playing the cello at the age of seven, and she made her debut with the Seoul Philharmonic only two years later. She was accepted to The Curtis Institute of Music at the age of ten.
She is currently living her dream of traveling the world while communicating and educating others through music. She especially loves working with other musicians from different backgrounds in a chamber music setting.
In addition to her performances, Christine is an avid advocate for charitable and philanthropic causes. In January 2017, she organized a charity concert as well as coat and backpack drive for the refugee children in Brussels. This season, she will be participating in the community project with Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth and Nativitas and organize concerts for homeless people in Brussels.
She studies at the Royal Academy of Music for her Advanced Performance Diploma under the guidance of Christoph Richter and plays on a Francesco Stradivarius on a generous loan from an anonymous sponsor.
George Fu - hailed by the Boston Music Intelligencer as a “heroic piano soloist” with “stunning virtuosity”, Chinese-American pianist George X Fu has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the National Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, Curtis Symphony Orchestra, and Bach Society Orchestra of Harvard University. He has performed at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, the Lied Center at the University of Kansas, the Japanese Embassy in London and the German Embassy in Washington D.C.
As a dedicated chamber musician, George frequently performs alongside duo partners and ensembles from around the world, and has often appeared with the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble as both soloist and collaborative musician. Keenly interested in interdisciplinary work, George has worked in various capacities: from collaborating in dance projects; to serving as music director and conductor at Harvard University.
A native of Frederick, Maryland, George began piano studies at the age of 5. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and a degree in piano performance at the Curtis Institute of Music, studying with Jonathan Biss and Meng-Chieh Liu. He currently studies with Christopher Elton and Joanna MacGregor at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where his studies are generously supported by the Tobias Matthay and Skelton Scholarships.