Dr. Minji Noh Lee has been on Irvine Valley College’s Keyboard department faculty since 2015. She brings decades of extensive teaching experiences in working with piano students of all ages. Praised as a “superb pianist” by the Boston Globe, Dr. Minji Noh Lee is active as a soloist and a chamber musician. She started her piano career at age nine as a soloist with the Baroque Symphony in South Korea and has subsequently appeared with the others like Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra, State Academic Orchestra of Ukraine, Orange County Symphony, La Mirada Symphony, and Bellflower Symphony. Dr. Lee has performed all over the United States in well-known venues such as the Jordan Hall, Los Angeles County Museum of Arts, The Lied Center, Orange County Performing Arts Center, Bowdoin College, Bates College, University of Ontario of Canada, Boston University, and University of California at San Diego. A strong believer in collaboration in music, she is a founding member of Trio Alectrona, Irvine Trio and MusiShare Chamber Players. In addition, her playing has been broadcast on South Korea’s KBS (Korean Broadcasting System), Irvine Public Television, and Wellesley Public Television, and has been heard on radio stations such as KUSC FM 91.5 and GBC 1190 AM of Los Angeles, California.

An avid interpreter of new music, Dr. Lee premiered A Piano Piece by Christian Wolff at the New England Conservatory of Music’s PianoFuture Festival in 2007 and worked with Steve Reich in the New Music Festival at Jordan Hall, Boston the same year. Boston Globe described Dr. Noh’s performance of Stockhausen’s Kontakte as “unrelenting”. Her current project includes a lecture-recital on use of musical quotation in post modern works by George Crumb, Charles Ives, Helmut Lachenmann and John Zorn.

Dr. Lee has won numerous awards in piano performance including top awards at the Long Beach Mozart Festival, the International Young Artists Peninsula Music Festival, the CAPMT (California Association of Professional Music Teachers) Bartok Festival Statewide, Los Angeles Liszt International Liszt Competition and the MTAC (Music Teachers Association of California) Concerto Competition. She has worked with renowned teachers such as Jerome Rose, Gabriel Chodos, Lynn Czae, Victor Rosenbaum, Young Hi Moon and Barry Snyder. She has degrees in Piano Performance from Oberlin Conservatory (B.M.), New England Conservatory (M.M. & G.D.), and University of Southern California (D.M.A.). Her principal teachers include Norman Krieger, Patricia Zander, Angela Cheng, Stephen Drury, Antoinette Perry, Ick-Choo and Hae Young Moon.

In addition to performing, Dr. Lee is passionate about teaching and serves on the numerous non-profit boards in music education. She currently serves as Orange County Director of JCM (Junior Chamber Music) and Artistic Director of Barum Music Foundation. Her previous leadership experiences include CAPMT State VP of Non-Competitive Events, CAPMT District VIII President, and MTAC State Chair of Friends of Today's Music. She resides in Orange and is an Adjunct Professor of Music at Irvine Valley College and Concordia University. For more information, please visit www.minjinoh.net.