Lee Jae Phang

Malaysian pianist Lee Jae Phang began studying seriously for a career in music when he was awarded a full scholarship to study as a specialist pianist at the Wells Cathedral School (WCS) in Somerset, England, UK.

There, he was taught by John Byrne, Head of Keyboard and a Professor of Piano at the Royal College of Music in London, and enjoyed numerous competition successes. Among many other awards, Lee Jae was named the ‘Most Outstanding Young Pianist of the Year’ at the Mid-Somerset Competitive Festival in 2009. He also performed at the prestigious St. Martin-in-the-Fields in May that year after winning a prize at the 13th EPTA (UK) Piano Competition. During his studies, Lee Jae was also selected for two tours to Hong Kong on behalf of the school, performing as a soloist and accompanist. The venues he performed at included the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, the Hong Kong Institute of Education, The Peninsular Hotel, and the Foreign Correspondents Club. Lee Jae graduated from Wells in 2012 with a performance of Liszt’s First Piano Concerto after winning the Concerto Auditions. The performance took place in the magnificent Wells Cathedral with conductor Christopher Adey and the school’s symphony orchestra.

In September 2012, Lee Jae continued his musical education at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) in Manchester, studying with the Head of School of Keyboard Studies, Graham Scott, and graduating 5 years later with a Master of Music in Performance with Distinction. In 2017, Lee Jae was also admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Schools of Music with Distinction.

At the RNCM, Lee Jae continued to expand on his musical activities, performing in many of the college’s programmed public events as a pianist in different roles; for example, he has appeared in RNCM Monday Lunchtime Recitals, Piano Days, Keyboard Festivals, Chamber Music Festivals, and performed at the 2016 RNCM New Music North West Festival.

Outside college, he made regular recital tours of the North-East, playing for the concerts organiser Master Musicians in venues around Newcastle. He has also performed solo recitals at the Leeds College of Music (as part of the Leeds International Concert Season), at the Northern Aldborough Festival, and at the Church Stretton Arts Festival. In London, he was regularly invited to perform for the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe (BPSE). Highlights include his performance of Tippett’s 3rd Piano Sonata at their Tippett/Beethoven concert series to celebrate Tippett’s life and work on the 20th anniversary of his death in 2018; in 2020, Lee Jae’s performance of Beethoven’s Op. 22 piano sonata was broadcast on their YouTube channel as part of their 2020 Beethoven anniversary celebration, which had to be moved online due to the pandemic.

As a concerto soloist, Lee Jae worked with a variety of conductors and orchestras after making his concerto debut with the WCS Symphony Orchestra. These include Mark Heron and the RNCM Chamber Orchestra, Davide Levi and Nick Meredith and the West Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra, Frank Lennon and the Burnley Orchestra, Dr. Martin Cook and the Shrewsbury Sinfonia, and Mihnea Ignat and the Alicante University Symphonic Orchestra (as part of Music Fest Perugia, Italy).

Lee Jae is also a devoted chamber musician, collaborating with other musicians whenever the opportunities arise. During his time at the RNCM, he led a piano trio (Trio Lazuli) for four years. Committed to excellence, the trio performed at an RNCM Piano Trio Day and at many music series around Manchester; the Monday Night Musicales in Cheadle, for example, who also awarded them the organisation’s yearly performance award. The trio also undertook recital tours for Master Musicians, venturing as far north as the Scottish Borders to perform at Mellerstain House for the Borders Music and Arts Society’s 2014 concert series. Finally, they were selected to perform in a public masterclass for the renowned Guarneri Trio Prague in the 2015 RNCM Chamber Music Festival. Further inspiring encounters in the trio capacity included masterclasses with Kathryn Stott (the duo partner of Yo-Yo Ma), Frans Helmerson (renowned cello pedagogue and performer), and Gábor Takács-Nagy (founder member of the Takács Quartet and Chief Conductor of The Manchester Camerata).

Following the disbandment of Trio Lazuli, Lee Jae joined a flute-violin-piano trio. Together, they commissioned a new work from composer Laura Nadal Abellà, which received its public premiere at a Coffee Concert Series in Didsbury in July 2017. In March that year, Lee Jae also performed Ligeti’s extremely challenging Trio for Violin, Horn, and Piano at ‘Budafest’ (the RNCM’s 2017 Hungarian-themed chamber music festival) to high acclaim. His collaborators were the violinist Pijus Jonušas of the Elmore String Quartet and John Ryan, the Principal Horn of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Naturally, Lee Jae also took part in many competitions during his studies at the RNCM. The prizes he won include the RNCM Mark Ray Recital Prize (First Prize) and the RNCM Helen Porthouse Paganini Prize with violinist Oliver Baily. In 2015, he was also a winner of the RNCM Concerto Auditions. This led to a concerto appearance with the RNCM Chamber Orchestra under the baton of conductor Mark Heron in December that same year.

Graduating with a Bachelor of Music with First Class Honours in 2015, Lee Jae was awarded the Hilda Anderson Dean Award (for solo work) and Musicales Prize (for Trio Lazuli). Lee Jae further added to his list of achievements in 2016 by participating in a Beethoven piano sonata festival and masterclass in Austria led by the renowned British concert pianist Julian Jacobson. There he won the Audience Prize and the ‘1st Beethoven Performance Award of the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe & Beethoven in Altaussee Festival 2016’ prize. His studies at the RNCM were generously supported by the F W Wright Scholarship Fund, the Waverley Fund, The Helen Mackaness Award, a ‘Help Musicians UK Postgraduate Award’, and an RNCM Bursary.

Building on his deep love and fascination for Ludwig van Beethoven’s music, today, Lee Jae has recorded almost all of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas. Totaling more than 11 hours of music, the sonatas rank amongst the highest Himalayan peaks of a pianist’s repertoire. He looks forward to presenting his first live sonata cycle to audiences in the near future.