Pianist Chi-Jo Lee is an emerging voice in the classical music landscape. Her playing has been described as “virtuosic… with impressive grace” (San Diego Union-Tribune) and that her performance was “delivered with brio and apt abandon” (The Santa Barbara Independent). A versatile pianist, Chi-Jo navigates diverse genres from solo performances to chamber and contemporary music.
Over the next two seasons, Chi-Jo will perform solo piano recitals and chamber music performances at the La Jolla Music Society, Le Salon de Musiques chamber music series, and the National concert hall in Taiwan. Other upcoming projects include collaboration with Maestro James Conlon on Music Restored concert, with LA ballet, and several world premiere contemporary pieces. Chi-Jo also recorded music of Carl Czerny to be released on Naxos’ Romantic Piano Series. Additionally, she regularly engages in collaborative projects with the Los Angeles Opera and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.
Performance highlights from previous seasons include Ravel Piano Concerto with conductor Stéphane Denève and the Colburn Orchestra at the Soraya, Grieg Piano Concerto with conductor Chan Wang at the National Concert Hall in Taiwan, Schumann Piano Concerto with conductor Tao Fan a the Beijing Concert Hall, with mezzo-soprano Susan Graham as part of the Discovering Debussy series at the Colburn School, chamber music with violinists Arnuaud Sussmann and Tessa Lark as part of the Colburn Chamber Music Society, and recordings of works by Kapralova, Schreker, and Korngold’s Much Ado About Nothing with conductor James Conlon and the Recovered Voices Ensemble.
Chi-Jo is a prize winner at The Wideman Piano competition, The Odyssiad Festival and Competition, and the concerto competitions at Indiana University and Colburn School. She was recently a semi-finalist at The Gurwitz Competition in the United States and a candidate at the ARD Competition in Germany. Her piano trio was the 2022 winner of the Eslite Chamber Music Audition. Prior to this achievement, she received multiple prizes from Taipei Education Department competition on both solo piano and piano trio from 2011 to 2015.
Chi-Jo is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma in piano performance at the Colburn Conservatory of Music with Fabio Bidini, where she is also a faculty member for the Colburn Academy and the Community School of Performing Arts. Additionally, private teaching at Fried Music. She was recently awarded the Louise Garland Scholarship at Colburn, an honor bestowed upon only one student a year. Prior to her time at Colburn, Chi-Jo studied under the guidance of legendary pianist André Watts at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.