The President The Hon. Bronwyn Bishop AO and the Friends Council have great pleasure in inviting the Friends to a Piano Recital by Lee Dionne on Sunday 1st June 2025 at 3pm at the Goethe Institut, 90 Ocean Street, Woollahra Members $45.00, Non-Members $50.00.
Program
Unsuk Chin – Etude No. 1, ‘In C ‘
György Ligeti – Etude No. 6, ‘Autumn in Warsaw’
Frederic Chopin – Scherzo No. 1 in B Minor
Unsuk Chin – Etude No. 2, ‘Sequenzen’
György Ligeti – Etude No. 13, ‘The Devil’s Staircase’
Frederic Chopin – Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat Minor
Frederic Chopin – Waltz in D-flat Major, Op. 64 No. 1 ‘Minute’
Unsuk Chin – Etude No. 3, ‘Scherzo ad libitum’
György Ligeti – Etude No. 10 ‘The Sorceror’s Apprentice’
Frederic Chopin – Scherzo No. 3 in C# Minor
Ruth Crawford Seeger – Study in Mixed Accents
György Ligeti – Etude No. 8 ‘Fém’
Frederic Chopin – Scherzo No. 4 in E Major
Described as “impressive” (NYTimes), “impeccable” (Fanfare Magazine), and “entrancing” (BBC Music Magazine), pianist Lee Dionne leads a varied, international career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, artistic director, and arranger.
He has performed numerous solo and chamber debut recitals in such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Jordan Hall, Merkin Hall, Spivey Hall, and the Philharmonic in Bratislava.
For six years Lee toured the US and internationally as the founding pianist of the Merz Trio (2017-2023), with which he was a recipient of the prestigious Naumburg Award in Chamber Music and first prize winner of the Fischoff, Chesapeake, and Concert Artist Guild Competitions. Other chamber ensembles and organisations with which Lee has been associated include Yellow Barn Music Festival, Ensemble Connect, and Cantata Profana.
Originally from the United States (greater NYC area), Lee relocated to Australia in 2023, where he joined flautist Rosie Gallagher in founding Hayes Street Studio, an international centre for chamber music in Sydney that presents over forty concerts of chamber music annually, featuring a roster of leading Australian and international musicians.
Within Australia Lee has been presented as a soloist, chamber musician, speaker, and studio artist by such organisations as Piano+, the Sydney Writers’ Festival, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Musica Viva, ABC Classic, and Fine Music Sydney.
As an artistic director, Lee is passionate about crafting vibrant programs that connect with audiences through their diversity of style and compositional voice, as well as their virtuosity, emotional intensity, and sense of play.
Lee has collaborated widely not only with musicians, but also with directors Eugene Lynch, Jon Levin, and Emma Jaster, dancer Caroline Copeland, puppeteers Eric and Shoshana Bass, and filmmakers Ben Ryan and Chris Kitchen. He has curated and contributed music to events hosted by the Yale Art Gallery, Sydney Writers’ Festival, and Person Place Thing Podcast with Randy Cohen.
Lee is deeply indebted to a host of former teachers and mentors, including pianists Vivian Weilerstein, Boris Berman, Wei-Yi Yang, Matti Raekallio, Seth Knopp, Patricia Zander, and Wilma Machover; harpsichordist Arthur Haas; musicologists Michael Friedmann and Paul Berry; and chamber musicians Don Weilerstein, Mark Steinberg, Julio Elizalde, Gerhard Schutz, Kim Kashkashian, Isabel Charisius, Merry Peckham, and Alisdair Tate.
In 2025, Lee will join the faculty of the Sydney Conservatorium as guest lecturer in piano and collaborative piano. Previous faculty positions include Yellow Barn’s Young Artist Program and Yale University’s Performance of Chamber Music Seminar.