Yoonsa Lee, viola

Meet Yoonsa

Yoonsa performs on Show 476.

Yoonsa Lee (viola), 18, is from Amherst, Massachusetts. She is a recent graduate of Deerfield Academy and an incoming freshman at Williams College. She is currently spending a gap year in Seoul, South Korea, and is studying with Doyeon Kim. Yoonsa began her musical studies on violin at age three with Heidi Kenney through the Suzuki Strings of Madison, Wisconsin. She continued studying with Kaila Graef and began performing in chamber ensembles coached by Colleen Jennings in Amherst. At 14, Yoonsa switched to the viola under the encouragement of Anthony Berner, whom she studied with at Deerfield Academy. In May 2025, she received Deerfield’s Chamber Music Award, which recognized her contributions and leadership as a four-year member of the Advanced Chamber Music Program and her three years as principal violist in the Deerfield Orchestra.

Yoonsa has participated in several chamber music programs such as Yellow Barn’s Young Artists Program, Greenwood Music Camp, and the Bowdoin International Music Festival, which she attended under the support of Deerfield’s Hodermarsky Summer Study Fund in 2023. Yoonsa has performed in masterclasses for Molly Carr, Sirena Huang, and Natalie Loughran. In 2023, Yoonsa founded the Tutti Youth Concert Series, a fundraising concert series that provides young musicians with performance opportunities and collects donations for the renovation of the Jones Library, her local public library. She launched the concert series under the generous funding of Deerfield Academy’s Workman Grant and received the Charles Piper Cost Award in 2024, which recognized her efforts in the past year and provided additional support. Yoonsa was also a member of Amherst’s Back to Bach program and frequently performed in local churches across western Massachusetts, including Amherst’s annual holiday Messiah Chorus and Orchestra. Her mentors include Becca Albers, Kirsten Docter, Carol Rodland, Rosemary Nelis, and Liz Freivogel.

Yoonsa enjoys reading, photography, and exploring cafés.