Kiran Lee, guitar

Meet Kiran

Kiran performs on Show 477.

Kiran Lee (guitar), 17, from Palo Alto, California, is the first-prize winner of the 2025 Texas Guitar Competition and the 2022 Sierra Nevada Guitar Competition. She is also a top prize winner of the Philadelphia Classical Guitar Competition and the Chicago Guitar Competition and was twice a semifinalist in the James Stroud Classical Guitar Competition. In 2023, Kiran was one of six performers invited to the Pre-College Guitar Virtuosos masterclass with Manuel Barrueco at the Peabody Conservatory. She has opened concerts for Stephanie Jones and Gaëlle Solal at the South Bay Guitar Society in San Jose, Calif., and performed with her guitar quartet for the Omni Foundation’s concert series in San Francisco. After starting the guitar under Patrick O’Connell at the Silicon Valley Classical Guitar School, Kiran is currently a student of Scott Cmiel at the Pre-College Division of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she also plays in the honors guitar quartet and the guitar orchestra. Kiran is a featured soloist in an upcoming documentary about the Pre-College produced by Virtual Guitar Orchestra and the Augustine Foundation. She has played in masterclasses for Sergio Assad, David Russell, Meng Su, David Tanenbaum, Marc Teicholz, Ben Verdery, and Jason Vieaux.

Outside the guitar, Kiran is a senior at Palo Alto High School and volunteers at the local Pets In Need animal shelter.