Biography
Gina Hyunmin Lee is a Korean-Canadian pianist based in Toronto, Canada. She is a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Accompanying and Chamber Music at the Eastman School of Music, where she studies with Dr. Andrew Harley. At Eastman, she has served as a departmental assistant, audition coordinator, and graduate assistant in studio accompanying. Throughout her studies, she received numerous recognition for her work in collaboration including Eastman’s Professional Development Grant (2023), the First Place Pianist Award at the 43rd Jessie Kneisel Lieder Competition (2025), the Ann Fehn Clark Memorial Award (2025), and the Barbara M. Koeng Award (2025).
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An active collaborative pianist and chamber musician, Gina has performed at prominent festivals and venues across North America, including the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, the Aspen Music Festival and School, SongFest, the Yarn/Wire Institute, the Indian River Music Festival, the Toronto Arts and Letters Club, and the Music Gallery. Recent engagements include serving as a staff collaborative pianist at the Interlochen Arts Centre in Michigan and performing at the Source Song Festival in Minneapolis.
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Her artistic work in Canada and abroad has been generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, ArtsNB, the Art Song Foundation of Canada, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Gina and fellow Canadian musician Elise Noyes were awarded a Canada Council for the Arts’ 'Explore and Create' grant to support a multi-layered album production project featuring Lili Boulanger’s song cycle Clairières dans le ciel, alongside a newly commissioned companion work by composer Monica Pearce. The album is currently in post-production and is expected to be released in Spring 2026.
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Gina is a graduate of the University of Toronto, where she studied with Dr. Midori Koga and Professor Marietta Orlov. She remains deeply indebted to the pedagogues whose teaching shaped her artistic and pedagogical values. Inspired by their mentorship, she pursued a master’s degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy at the University of Toronto. Her master’s research project—exploring a blind pianist’s development of tactile and aural perceptions at the piano—was recognized with an award from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
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Like her work as a collaborative pianist, Gina values partnership and dialogue in educational settings. Throughout her doctoral studies, she has remained actively engaged in collegiate teaching alongside her performance career. From 2021 to 2023, she served as a chamber music coach in the Arthur Satz Department of Music, coaching undergraduate chamber ensembles. From 2023 to 2025, she served as an adjunct professor of Piano at the Rochester Institute of Technology, teaching applied piano lessons and maintaining an active studio.
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She is currently based in Toronto, where she maintains an active freelance career as a collaborative pianist and educator.