Nelson Lee

Bio

Nelson Lee is first violinist of the Jupiter String Quartet which has performed extensively throughout North America and abroad.  One of the leading ensembles of its generation, the quartet has been heard at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Jordan Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Bellas Artes in Mexico City, and Sejong Hall in Seoul.  In recent years, the quartet has won first prize at the Eighth International Banff String Quartet Competition, Young Concert Artists Competition, and Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.  The quartet has been a member of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Two program and received the 2008 Avery Fisher Career Grant as well as Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award in 2007.

As a soloist, Nelson has appeared with the Cleveland Institute Symphony Orchestra, Yale Symphony Orchestra, Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, Ann Arbor Symphony, and Birmingham-Bloomfield Symphony Orchestra.  He also performs regularly with the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO), a conductorless string orchestra comprised of soloists, chamber musicians, and orchestral musicians from around the country.  ECCO has been heard to great acclaim at the Kennedy Center, New York’s Town Hall, and Philadelphia Chamber Music Society among others. The group just released their debut CD on EOne records featuring works by Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and an arrangement of Geminiani’s La Follia by Michi Wiancko.

Nelson has had the opportunity to collaborate with such artists as David Shifrin, Joel Krosnick, Paul Katz, Roger Tapping, Michael Tree, Peter Wiley, Ida Kavafian, Wu Han, Gilbert Kalish, Bob McDonald, and Menahem Pressler.  He has performed with the Boston Chamber Music Society and has also been heard with the Park City Chamber Music Society.

An active and devoted teacher, Nelson has given masterclasses at numerous institutions and festivals around the country including the Peabody Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, Northwestern University, Boston Conservatory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Aspen Music Festival, Madeline Island Music Camp, and Music at Menlo.  He also served as a teaching assistant to Donald Weilerstein while attending the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Nelson comes from a family of musicians.  His parents are both pianists (his father also a conductor) and his twin sisters Andrea and Alicia play the cello and clarinet.  He is married to Denise Djokic, cellist, with whom he collaborates often.