Finalist: Eunjin Lee

Born in Seoul, Korea, Eunjin Lee holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in piano performance from Yonsei University in Korea. Since she gave her first concerto performance debut with the Sunhwa Arts School Orchestra at the age of thirteen, she has given solo and chamber recitals at Buam Art Hall, Youngsan Art Hall, Sejong Center in Korea as well as in Semúr-en Auxois and Nice in France.

After she began her doctoral studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2001, she has received much recognition as an outstanding pianist performing with the University of Illinois Symphony Orchestra (2004), the University of Illinois New Music Ensemble, and was invited as a guest artist at the New Music Festival 2005 held at Western Illinois University. She is the winner of the University of Illinois Concerto Competition and was given awards from the Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition (2006), Young Artists piano competition by the Kankakee Valley Symphony Orchestra Association (2002). She recently finished her doctoral degree in Piano Performance and Literature studying with Dr. William Heiles. In March of 2008, she was invited to the Yale Graduate Music Symposium in Yale University to give a presentation with her doctoral dissertation about Ligeti’s piano etudes. She also studied with Dennis Helmrich (accompanying), and had coachings with members of the Pacifica Quartet (chamber music) and Cynthia Haymon (vocal music). She has also participated in master classes with Earl Wild, Martin Canin, Oxana Yablonskaya, Stanislav Ioudenitch and Jean François Hésser.