Violinist Sean Lee: The 24 Paganini Caprices

Join us for an immersive musical experience that places you in the heart of the performance. Taking place in our intimate Studio space, The Sound Studio series brings you up close and personal with emerging classical performing artists. American violinist Sean Lee is one of the few artists who perform Niccolò Paganini's complete 24 Caprices—the most demanding music ever written for solo violin. His command of this repertoire runs through a rare lineage. Paganini composed the Caprices as the ultimate test of the instrument and in 1947, Ruggiero Ricci became the first violinist to record all 24 solo. Lee, who studied directly with Ricci, carries that legacy forward into a new century. A recipient of Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Career Grant, Lee performs with a soundThe New York Timeshas called “breathtakingly beautiful,” and has captured the attention of audiences worldwide. That sense of discovery defines how Lee shares his art. He is completing a full video cycle of the 24 Caprices inPaganini POV, a first-person series that places the viewer behind the violin—a perspective that did not exist in Ricci's era. The project extends one of the defining chapters of his career: in January 2022, after giving the first complete performance of the 24 Caprices in the 52-year history of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Lee and pianist Peter Dugan releasedPaganini X Schumann: 9 Caprices, an EP and video series of selections arranged by Robert Schumann. As a soloist, Lee has appeared with orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, Israel Camerata Jerusalem, and Utah Symphony, while his recitals have taken him to Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Italy's Festival di Carro Paganiniano, and Vienna's Konzerthaus. He is a top prizewinner at the Premio Paganini International Violin Competition. A longtime artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Lee has performed throughout its seasons at Lincoln…