Program

Beethoven
Violin Sonata No. 5 in F Major, Op. 24 “Spring”

Brahms
Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Op. 100

Prokofiev
Violin Sonata in D Major Op. 94 a

Performers

Corey McVicar, piano
Kyung Sun Lee, violin

Artist Profiles

Corey McVicar

Described as a “duly poetic and exhilarating” pianist by the Sydney Morning Herald, has performed worldwide. He has appeared extensively throughout his native Australia, including notable performances at the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Parliament House; he has also given concerto performances with the Sydney and Queensland Symphony Orchestras. Other international performances include solo recital and concerto engagements in Singapore at Victoria Hall; the American University and Goethe institute in Bangkok, Thailand; in Saint Germain En-Laye, France; and throughout Asia for the Pacific and Orient Corporation.

In the United States, Mr. McVicar has given recitals at venues such as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC; Carnegie Weill Recital Hall in New York City and Strathmore Hall Music Center in North Bethesda, Maryland. His solo and chamber music performances have been heard on radio stations in Australia, France, and the United States. Most recently Mr. McVicar’s concertizing has included numerous chamber music collaborative performances and appearances with international artists in Southeast Asia and in the U.S., including tours of the Midwest and several East Coast cities as well as the San Francisco Bay area. He has recorded for VDA Classics.

Mr. McVicar has had successes in numerous solo competitions such as the New York Frinna Awerbuch International Piano Competition, the Liszt International Piano Competition (Italy), and the Yale Gordon and Dan Saslov Piano Competitions in Baltimore, USA. He earned his musical education at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music of the University of Sydney, and the Peabody Conservatory of Music of The Johns Hopkins University. Postgraduate piano studies followed in both Germany and France. The various artists with whom he has worked include Ann Schein, Yvonne Lefebure, Leon Fleisher, and Murray Perahia.

Before moving to San Francisco, California in 2011 Corey McVicar served on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory of Music of the Johns Hopkins University and the Peabody Preparatory for 23 years. He also held an adjunct piano faculty teaching position at Columbia University in New York. Mr. McVicar has given numerous piano master classes on both coasts of the United States, in Asia and in Australia. He is currently Professor of Piano at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Kyung Sun Lee

Violinist Kyung Sun Lee captured sixth prize in the 1994 Tchaikowsky Competition, a bronze medal in the 1993 Queen Elizabeth Competition, first prizes of the Washington and D'Angelo International Competitions, and third prize in the Montreal International Competition, where she also won the Audience Favorite and the Best Performance of the Commissioned Work prizes. 

Subsequent to winning these awards she has enjoyed ever-increasing popularity as a performer. She has received high critical acclaim: “Exceptional tonal suavity and expressive intensity in equal measure,” commented The Strad. “Godard's ‘Concerto Romantique’ could not have had a more outstanding soloist than Kyung Sun Lee,” proclaimed Harris Goldsmith in the New York Concert Review. “Fluidity and grace; pathos and emotion,” raved the Palm Beach Post. “Lee is the most musical, the most intelligent soloist to have played with the orchestra in quite a while,” maintained the Tuscaloosa News. “Penetrating clarity, a strong sense of style and a technical supremacy that conquered all difficulties with unruffled ease,” announced the Miami Herald. “Beyond superb execution, she conveyed [Vieuxtemps's Concerto no. 5]'s particular Romanticism expertly,” remarked Dennis Rooney in The Strad.

In addition to her busy schedule as soloist and chamber musician, Lee is an accomplished teacher and clinician. After becoming Assistant Professor of Violin at the Oberlin Conservatory in the fall of 2001, then Associate Professor at the University of Houston in the fall of 2006, she is currently Professor at Seoul National University since 2009. She taught for two summers at the Aspen Music Festival, and has also been involved with the Seattle, Ravinia and the Marlboro Chamber Music Festivals, the Texas Music Festival, and the Great Mountains Music Festival in Korea. Lee is a former member of the acclaimed KumHo/Asiana String Quartet, with whom she toured worldwide. In recent years she has also been in demand as a judge of violin competitions including the Joachim International Violin Competition Hannover, Seoul International Competition and the Tibor  Junior International Competition in Sion, Swiss. 

Kyung Sun Lee studied at Seoul National University, Peabody Conservatory, and Juilliard. Her teachers have included Nam Yun Kim, Sylvia Rosenberg, Robert Mann, Dorothy Delay, and Hyo Kang. She plays a Joseph Guarnerius violin dating from 1723 and she is the music director of Changwon International Chamber Music Festival and Seoul Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra.