“Clearly she understood the phrasing of its seamless lines, and was in a close and attentive partnership with Lim, whose piano part was denser but perfectly balanced in ensemble.”
Singaporean musician Lee Shi Mei is a sought-after performer and teacher in the Singapore music scene. 2nd Prize winner of the National Violin and Piano Competition 2007, Violin Artist Category in Singapore, Shi Mei went on to perform as violin soloist with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra at the President’s Young Performers Concert 2008. She has also been featured as soloist with The Chamber Players, as well as in the award-winning local animated film “The Violin” by Ervin Han.
Shi Mei’s passion for chamber music led her to perform with the Lyrica String Ensemble in New Jersey, 2009. Her quartet’s rendition of the Arensky String Quartet won the hearts of its audience at LyricaFest 2010. In 2012, she was invited to perform chamber music at the Bowdoin International Music Festival as a Performing Associate Fellow in the studio of Mikhail Kopelman. Following her successful recital debut with pianist Lim Yan on the complete Brahms’ Violin Sonatas in 2015, Shi Mei continues to perform regularly with Lim Yan and cellist Lin Juan at the Esplanade Recital Studio and major concert venues in Singapore.
Apart from the standard repertory, Shi Mei has premiered many new solo and chamber works such as Moods for Solo Violin in the United States and Quartet for Trio in Singapore, both by Singaporean composer Tan Chan Boon. She is also concertmaster of re: mix ensemble, which is committed to performing newly commissioned works by Singaporean composers every year. In 2017, Shi Mei was invited to perform contemporary compositions by Hong Kong composer Clarence Mak and Australian composer Damien Ricketson at the 3rd Pacific Alliance of Music Schools (PAMS) Summit and Music Festival at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, Singapore.
As an orchestra musician, Shi Mei has performed with the Oberlin Conservatory Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, New York. She also toured with the SSO and performed at the London BBC Proms 2015. Shi Mei has appeared as concertmaster of the Metropolitan Festival Orchestra, Re: SOUND Collective, re: mix ensemble, Singapore Lyric Opera and The Chamber Players.
Shi Mei received her Master of Music with Distinction in Violin Performance by the Longy School of Music, USA. She was awarded the Roman Totenberg Award for stellar academic and artistic achievement at the same time. She also holds a Bachelor of Music in Violin and Piano Performance by the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, USA. A recipient of the National Arts Council Arts Bursary (2007, 2009-2011), Shi Mei currently teaches violin at the School of the Arts Singapore and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.
She continues to draw inspiration from her music mentors: her aunt Jacqueline Anne Lee, Laura Bossert, Ong Lip Tat, Jin Li, Timothy Ku, Sanford Margolis, and Marilyn McDonald. She plays on a 2013 David Collins violin.