Jinwoo Lee Heads into Second Season as Milwaukee Symphony Concertmaster

In Tuesday’s (7/22) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Jim Higgins writes, “ ‘The conductor is the head of the entire orchestra,’ said Jinwoo Lee, concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. ‘But he’s really the only person who doesn’t make a single sound.’ That’s where Lee comes in. As the leader of the violinists, he makes sounds, and in doing so serves as a bridge between the conductor and the rest of the orchestra…. In September, Lee will begin his second season as MSO concertmaster. He came here from Neue Philharmonie Westfalen in Germany, where he also had been a concertmaster. A native of South Korea, he earned bachelor and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, then completed his doctorate at the Manhattan School of Music. His hiring and move to Milwaukee took some time, thanks to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. He remembers six rounds of auditions over a 12-hour period, followed by the invitation to play a trial week here…. Lee has been impressed by the professional dedication of his Milwaukee colleagues, while still finding them ‘relaxed enough to talk to you, joke with you, be with you on a personal level.’ ”