ChoEun Lee
Michael Couper
Yungee Rhie
Guest artists Yungee Rhie, soprano, and Dr. Michael Couper, saxophone, along with Lee university music professor Dr. ChoEun Lee, piano, will present a vocal chamber music recital, “The Ocean of Eternity,” on Thursday, Feb. 7 at 8 p.m. in Squires Recital Hall.
The program will feature works by Denis Bédard, Lori Laitman, Robert Muczynski, John Plant, and Udo Zimmermann. A selection from Laitman’s co-commissioned work, “Oceans of Eternity,” will be world-premiered at the recital.
About the performers:
An avid concert artist, Rhie has made her appearance at Carnegie Hall, New York Austrian Cultural Forum, German Consulate, Helmut-List-Halle, and Seoul Arts Center, among others. As an opera singer and oratorio soloist, she has worked with companies such as Oregon Symphony, Bard Music Festival, Gotham Chamber Opera, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, and Korea National Opera.
She has received multiple awards and scholarships from Sorel Organization, Tanglewood Music Center, Mario Lanza Institute Scholarship Competition, Schuyler Foundation for Career Bridges, and New York Lyric Opera Theater Vocal Competition, to name a few. Currently, she is an adjunct professor at Ewha Womans University and Gyeongsang National University in Korea.
Hailed by the New York Times for his “sweet intensity” and “insinuating smoothness,” Couper is active in the advancement of the saxophone repertoire to include current music, traditional music reinterpreted, and innovations in pop styles. He was a finalist for the 2015 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, a rare distinction among saxophone soloists. As a soloist and chamber musician, he has performed internationally at major venues including the Seoul Arts Center, Miller Theater, Merkin Hall, and Carnegie Hall.
Couper has given guest artist recitals and masterclasses at universities and conservatories around the country, including New England Conservatory, the Longy School of Music, Boston University, CSU Sacramento, and CSU Long Beach. He is an active teacher and performer in his community, with recent faculty appointments at San Diego State University and CSU San Bernardino, and summer festivals including CSU Summer Arts, and the California State Summer School for the Arts.
Lee, an assistant professor of collaborative piano and vocal coaching at the university, has given numerous performances in Austria, Australia, Italy, Korea, the United States and New Zealand, in major venues including Carnegie Hall, Ozawa Hall (Tanglewood Music Center), and Harris Concert Hall (Aspen Music Festival).
She has worked extensively in recitals and masterclasses with renowned musicians, including Stephanie Blythe, Martin Katz, Anne Sofie von Otter, Christine Schäfer, Dawn Upshaw, and Linda Watson. Lee was named a recipient of the Grace B. Jackson Prize and of the Gwendolyn Koldofsky Keyboard Collaborative Arts scholarship four times, and one of her performances in Seiji Ozawa Hall was broadcasted on WAMC. As an active clinician, she has given numerous masterclasses and presentations at universities and associations, including Chattanooga Music Teachers Association (CMTA), CollabFest@USC, CollabFest@UNT and the National Taipei Normal University.
The recital is free, non-ticketed and open to the public.
For more information about the concert, contact the School of Music at 423-614-8240 or at music@leeuniversity.edu.