Dr. Hae-Jong Lee, a native of South Korea, has directed, for more than 30 years, church choirs, high school choirs, honor choirs, college choirs, community choirs and professional choirs in Korea and the United States. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree from the Seoul National University and his Master of Music degree from the Westminster Choir College, Princeton, NJ.
Lee received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in choral conducting and literature from the University of Illinois, Champaign, IL. At the University of Illinois he directed the University of Illinois Chorus and served as Chorus Master of the University of Illinois Opera Company.
While staying in Princeton, he toured Taiwan, Korea, France (Colmar International Festival), and Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC, with the renowned Westminster Choir. He, as vocalist, had performed with major orchestras including New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Luke Orchestra, LA Philharmonic Orchestra, and New Jersey Symphony Orchestra under the baton of world class conductors including Kurt Mazur, Wolfgang Sawallish, Zdenek Makal, Helmuth Rilling, Joseph Flummerfelt, and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
He joined the Dana School of Music as Director of Choral Activities in 2002. At the Dana School of Music he directs Dana choral ensembles and teaches undergraduate choral/instrumental conducting and advanced choral conducting classes. He also supervises graduate choral conducting students.
Lee has been the Chorus Master of the Opera Western Reserve since 2005. He has been the Artistic Director of the Stambaugh Chorus since 2009. He has been directing the Cleveland Korean Presbyterian Church Choir and Chamber Orchestra since 2004.
As voice teacher, he has taught numerous singers including wide range of ages in both Korea and the U.S. His choral music review has appeared in Choral Journal, the official national publication of ACDA. Lee’s conducting teachers include Joseph Flummerfelt, James Jordan, Andrew Megill, Fred Stoltzfus, Don Moses (choral conducting); Donald Schleiger and Bong-Heun Yoo (orchestral conducting).
In addition to his duty as a college educator, he is fully committed to promote choral singing in the community, making unity in diversity and peace through choral singing. He remains active as guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator for a variety of choral events in the U.S. and Korea. He is interested in performing not only pure choral compositions but also major choral/orchestral works. Some of his choral/orchestral works performed at the Youngstown State University include Handel’s Messiah and Utrecht Te Deum; Faure’s Requiem; Beethoven’s 9th Symphony Finale “Ode to Joy”; Rutter’s Gloria; Poulenc’s Gloria; Vivaldi’s Gloria; Jenkins’ Gloria and The Armed Man; Mozart’s Requiem; and many more.
Some of his recent activities include his appearances with Korean choirs as a guest conductor, in Korean music workshops as a master clinician and in the Ohio Music Educators Association conferences as a clinician. Most recently he has been selected to serve as one of the lecturers at the 10th World Symposium on Choral Music in Seoul, Korea during the period of August 7-14, 2014. He is an active member of professional organizations, including American Choral Directors Association, International Federation for Choral Music, Chorus America, and The National Association for Music Education.
He is excited to conduct Handel’s Messiah annually as the new Director of the Warren Civic Chorus beginning in the fall of 2013. Dr. Lee resides in Poland, OH with his wife, Emiko and his son, Noah.