Byungchan Lee has garnered recognition as prizewinner of the Yuri Yankelevitch International Violin Competition, and was one of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Next!” classical music stars in 2016. He was subsequently named one of CBC’s 30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30 in 2017 and has recorded three national broadcasts to date. He appeared as a soloist with the McGill and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras, and performed alongside Stevie Wonder in Montréal as well as at the closing ceremony of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Engagements have led to performances in most major halls across Canada, as well as in prominent venues around the world including Alice Tully, Carnegie and David Geffen Halls, the Helsinki Music Center, and the Berwaldhallen in Stockholm. 

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Recent highlights include appearing as guest soloist at the Montreal Chamber Music Festival, a residency at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute, and chamber music performances at the Harvard Club of New York, South Orange Performing Arts Center (NJ), Shandelee Music Festival (NY), and the Robbie Collomore Series (CT). Past projects include premieres of new works at the Museum of Modern Art, the New York Choreographic Institute, and the Focus Festival at Juilliard. Other festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival, Toronto Summer Music, Music Master’s Course Japan, Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, McGill International String Quartet Academy, and the New York String Orchestra Seminar. 

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Born in Seoul, Korea, Byungchan started violin studies in Vancouver with renowned pedagogue Taras Gabora. He obtained his bachelor’s and Artist Diploma from McGill University studying with Denise Lupien, Felicia Moye, André Roy, and Axel Strauss. At McGill he held the Lloyd Carr-Harris String Scholarship for four years. He received his master’s degree with Masao Kawasaki from The Juilliard School, where he served as co-concertmaster of the orchestra and was awarded a Norman Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant. He is recipient of two major music prizes in Canada: the Golden Violin Award in 2014, and the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award in 2017. He was invited to the Artist as Citizen conference in New York City, served as a Gluck Community Service fellow, and holds a lifetime Sylff fellowship.

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Byungchan plays on an 1869 J.B. Vuillaume violin and bow, on loan from the Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank. As of September 2019, he joined the Rebanks Family Fellowship and International Performance Residency Program at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto under the guidance of Jonathan Crow and Barry Shiffman.