DVORAK SYMPHONY NO. 7

Violinist Kyung Sun Lee captured sixth prize in the 1994 Tchaikovsky 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, Ms. 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 a newly-announced Professor of Music in Violin at The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and 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. Ms. 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.

Ms. Lee studied at Seoul National University, Peabody Conservatory, and The Juilliard School. 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 serves as music director of the Changwon International Chamber Music Festival and Seoul Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra.

Timothy Muffitt is currently Music Director and Conductor of the Lansing Symphony Orchestra, a position he has held since 2006. For 21 years, he was also Music Director of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra. Upon his resignation there he was honored with the title Music Director Laureate.

Mr. Muffitt is also Artistic Director of the Chautauqua Institution Music School and conductor of the Music School Festival Orchestra, one of the country’s premiere orchestral training ensembles. He has held this position for 25 years.

Along with continued growth in artistic excellence, Mr. Muffitt’s work has been marked by innovative and imaginative programming. In addition to traditional concert settings, he has crafted concert programs in new and engaging formats and venues, creating musical experiences that have expanded the audience base in his communities and garnered enthusiastic response.

Also notable throughout his career has been the championing of new music from composers of broadly diverse backgrounds including composers from traditionally under-represented communities along with well-established composers and those whose stars are still rising. He has been involved in commissioning well over 100 works in his career and initiated a Composer-in-Residence program with The Lansing Symphony. These efforts reflect Mr. Muffitt’s commitment to creating a nurturing environment for music of our time, all while striking a balance with traditional repertoire that creates a dynamic experience for the audiences.

In great demand as a guest conductor, Mr. Muffitt has appeared with many prominent orchestras around the country including the Atlanta, St. Louis, Houston, Phoenix, Edmonton, Spokane and Tulsa Symphonies, along with several return engagements with the San Francisco Symphony. Other engagements have taken Muffitt to podiums of the Hollywood Bowl, Columbus Ohio’s Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra, the Long Beach Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, Harrisburg Symphony, the Virginia Symphony, and the Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra in Chicago. Equally at home in the opera pit as the concert stage, Mr. Muffitt has also conducted over 50 staged opera productions.

He has had the pleasure of collaborating with a wide range of artists including Lang Lang, Yo Yo Ma, Renee Fleming, William Warfield, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Van Cliburn, Itzhak Perlman, Andre Watts, Audra McDonald, Chris Botti, Branford Marsalis, Roberta Flack, Kenny Loggins, and Trisha Yearwood among many others.

The 2022-2023 season sees return engagements with the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Ann Arbor Symphony, Flint Symphony and two concerts in Baton Rouge with Emanuel Ax and Hilary Hahn.

Off the podium, Mr. Muffitt​ has engaged his communities as an arts advocate and cultural leader through multiple platforms. A strong proponent of community-based arts education and enrichment, he has used television, radio, public lecture and social media to engage, entertain and enlighten diverse audiences.

Formerly Associate Conductor with the Austin Symphony, Mr. Muffitt was also Artistic Director of the Louisiana Philharmonic’s Casual Classics Series in New Orleans. It was for his work in that position that he was awarded a Certificate of Meritorious Service from the American Federation of Musicians.

Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Mr. Muffitt began his musical studies on the piano and later added viola and trumpet. He is a graduate of Ohio State University and the Eastman School of Music where he studied with David Effron and earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree.