KOA STRING QUARTET

Korean-American cellist Heewon Lee is an active performer and educator in the United States. Currently based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Heewon is a founding member of the Koa String Quartet and Artist-In-Residence at the Hana Hou Music Program in Maui, Hawaii. From Alaska to Peru, she has traveled the world on cruise ships, performing as the Lincoln Center Stage Piano Quartet and captivating audiences on and off the ship. She has also performed in the Artosphere Festival Orchestra and the Sarasota Opera Orchestra for the 2023 season and appeared previously with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra. 

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Heewon holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Eastman School of Music. She has played principal cellist for the Oberlin Orchestra, the Eastman School of Music Opera Orchestra and performed with the Oberlin Baroque Orchestra, Oberlin Contemporary Ensemble, and Eastman’s Contemporary Ensemble Ossia. Keen to collaborative learning, she has worked with founding members of the Takács String Quartet, the Cleveland String Quartet, the Tokyo String Quartet, amongst others, and the genre-bending musicians Jake Shimabukuro, Daniel Ho, and the Punch Brothers. Her primary teachers were Amir Eldan, Steven Doane, Rosemary Elliott, and Catharina Meints on Baroque Cello. 

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Heewon has taught private and group cello lessons at the Kanack School of Music and Artistry in Rochester, New York while teaching students online from various upstate New York and California cities. Heewon is grateful to have been a six-time recipient of the Doris and Clarence Glick Classical Music Scholarship Fund of the Hawaii Community Foundation for the opportunity to pursue her musical journey.