Jieun Lee enjoys a multifaceted career as a soloist, collaborator, educator, and trained organist. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2017 as a top prizewinner in the American Protégé International Piano Competition. Most recently, she earned the gold medal at the 2024 WPTA Finland International Piano Competition. In 2023, she performed in a master class with Sean Chen at the MTNA conference and presented a recital at Steinway Hall, New York. Among her other achievements, she won the 2021 UGA Concerto Competition, received an Honorable Mention as a finalist in the 2021 Wideman International Competition, achieved first prize in the 2015 MTNA Young Artist Piano Competition in Missouri, and earned numerous top prizes in competitions across the USA and South Korea.
As a collaborator, Lee was featured on the soundtrack of Netflix’s acclaimed documentary, The Social Dilemma. Highlights of other collaborations include a professional engagement as an ensemble pianist with the Martha Graham Dance Company as part of UGA’s Performing Arts Center series; a world premiere performance with the UGA Wind Ensemble at the 2023 CBDNA National Conference; an invitation to be a featured harpsichordist in a Bach Concerto led by former Juilliard String Quartet violinist Joseph Lin at the 2022 Chamber Music Athens festival. She also had a groundbreaking ensemble collaboration with Athens-area hip-hop artists through the Athens Hip Hop Harmonic initiative and contributed to two commercially released albums with Missouri State University’s Chorale and conductor Cameron F. LaBarr.
Lee holds two master’s degrees in piano performance and piano pedagogy from CU Boulder and two undergraduate degrees in piano performance and organ performance from Missouri State University. She is currently a doctoral candidate at UGA, studying with Dr. Liza Stepanova. At UGA, Lee was awarded a teaching assistantship in class piano, instructed private lessons for piano minors, and served as a collaborative pianist for the Hodgson Singers. She also taught in the Community Music School and was Vice President for TONIC, UGA’s MTNA collegiate chapter. Recently, Lee became a member of the 2024 Recording Academy new member class.
Watch Jieun Lee perform Piano Sonata No 2 in A flat major, Op 57 by Dora PejačEvić on the piano for the 2025 Summer Music Competition as part of the Charleston International Music Competition.