Angela Wee, a junior at Syosset High School, is the winner of the prestigious Long Island Philharmonic Young Artist Competition. She will play the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the orchestra at their gala on April 23 at Oheka Castle. At the high school, Wee participates in the Chamber Music Club, as well as the Tri-M Music Honor Society.
She practices her violin at least two to three hours a day, working up to five to six hours before a competition or audition, and has been named All-County and All-State.
Wee began her violin studies at age 4, entering the Juilliard Pre-College, where she is currently studying with Masao Kawasaki, at 10 years old. Since the age of 6, Wee has performed with numerous orchestras in grand venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center as a result of competitions, which include the Queens Symphony Orchestra, Metropolitan Youth Orchestra, Sound Symphony Orchestra, Island Symphony Orchestra, Massapequa Philharmonic, Greenwich Village Orchestra, New York Chamber Orchestra, and many more. At age 9, she was invited as a guest performer for The Lauri Strauss Leukemia Foundation Benefit Concert at Carnegie Hall’s Issac Stern auditorium.
She won the 2011 Juilliard Pre-College Concerto Competition, resulting in a performance with the Juilliard Pre-College Symphony in Alice Tully Hall. In 2012, she participated in the Menuhin International Violin Competition in Beijing and placed as one of eight finalists. Wee won the top prize in the 2013 Cooper International Violin Competition and second prize in the 2013 Dorothy DeLay Fellowship Competition in the Aspen Music Festival. Recently, she won first prize in the 2013 Salomé Chamber Orchestra Competition, where she was awarded a Stradivarius, and performed in Carnegie Hall.
Wee’s live broadcasts on national radio include NPR’s “From The Top” with pianist Christopher O’Riley. She collaborated with Robert McDuffie for the Harris Hall 20th Anniversary Concert in Aspen, where she has been a recipient of the New Horizons Fellowship for three years. She also received a scholarship and was invited to participate in the David Finckel/Wu Han Chamber Intensive Program in Aspen. Wee has performed as a soloist at the Interharmony Music Festival held in San Francisco and Germany.
In addition to the Long Island Philharmonic competition, she has taken first place in the LISMA International Competition, first place and grand prize in the New York Music Competition, grand prize in the Alexander and Buono International Competition and second place in the Blount-Slawson National Young Artist Competition.
Wee was selected as one of the Young Artists for the 2009 and 2013 Starling-DeLay Symposia on Violin Studies. She was also invited as a guest performer at the Bohemians New York Music Club, giving a recital with pianist Akira Eguchi.
Wee has performed in the master classes of Chee-Yun Kim, Paul Kantor, David Kim, Cho-Liang Lin, Robert McDuffie, Jorja Fleezanis and Ani Kavafian.
