Dr. Hae-Jong Lee, Director

Dr. Hae-Jong Lee, a native of South Korea, has directed, for more than twenty five years, church choirs, high school choirs, honor choirs, college choirs, community choirs and professional choirs in Korea and the United States.  He earned his Bachelor of Music degree from the Seoul National University and his Master of Music degree from the Westminster Choir College, Princeton, NJ.  Lee received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in choral conducting and literature from the University of Illinois, Champaign, IL.  At the University of Illinois he directed the University of Illinois Chorus and served as Chorus Master of the University of Illinois Opera Company.  While staying in Princeton, he toured Taiwan, Korea, France (Colmar International Festival), and Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC, with the renowned Westminster Choir. He, as vocalist, had performed with major orchestras including New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Luke Orchestra, LA Philharmonic Orchestra, and New Jersey Symphony Orchestra under the baton of world class conductors including Kurt Mazur, Wolfgang Sawallish, Zdenek Makal, Helmuth Rilling, Joseph Flummerfelt, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. As voice teacher, he has taught numerous singers including wide range of ages in both Korea and the U.S.  He joined the Dana School of Music as Director of Choral Activities in 2002.  At the Dana School of Music he directs Dana choral ensembles and teaches undergraduate choral/instrumental conducting and advanced choral conducting classes.  He also supervises graduate choral conducting students.  Lee has been the Chorus Master of the Opera Western Reserve since 2005.  He has been directing the Cleveland Korean Presbyterian Church Choir and Chamber Orchestra since 2004.  His choral music review appears regularly in Choral Journal, the official national publication of ACDA, of which he is a registered choral reviewer.  Lee’s conducting teachers include Joseph Flummerfelt, James Jordan, Andrew Megill, Fred Stoltzfus, Don Moses (choral conducting); Donald Schleiger and Bong-Heun Yoo (orchestral conducting).  He is interested in performing not only pure choral compositions but also choral/orchestral works.  He remains active as guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator for a variety of choral events in the U.S. and Korea.  Some of his recent activities include his appearance with the Pusan City Choir (professional choir) in Pusan, Korea as a guest conductor and in the Ohio Music Educators Association conference as a clinician presenting “Choral Music in Korea”.  He is an active member of professional organizations, including American Choral Directors Association, International Federation for Choral Music, Chorus America, and The National Association for Music Education. 

Joo-Hwa  Lee, Accompanist 

Joo-Hwa Lee is a native of Busan, South Korea. She obtained a B.M. degree in piano performance from Kosin University, and received the Austria Salzburg Summer Academy Diploma in collaborative piano. Joo-Hwa has been accompanying for various ensembles, both instrumental and vocal. She also has experience as the rehearsal accompanist for various opera companies and oratorio performances in South Korea. Her repertoires include La Boheme, L ‘Elisir  d'Amore, La Traviata, Pagliacci and Hansel and Gretel, The Messiah, Eljjah, and The Creation. Before coming to the U.S. in 2007, she was the accompanist of the Masan Civic Professional Choir in Masan, South Korea. She was also an associate professor of collaborative piano at both Ulsan University and Busan Presbyterian College. Joo-Hwa was the accompanist for the 2007 and 2008 Dana Vocal Performance Clinic, and in the fall semester of 2007 she accompanied both the Dana Chorale and University Chorus at Youngstown State University. Most recently she accompanied opera Madama Butterfly as a principal accompanist in Youngstown. Joo­Hwa is currently the accompanist at the Stambaugh Chorus as well as at the Korean Central Presbyterian Church in Cleveland and also accompanies many students both vocal and instrumental at the Dana School of Music.   

Dong-Hyun Son, Assistant Director

Dong-Hyun Son, a native of South Korea, has directed church choirs, junior choirs, community choirs, and college choirs for almost twenty years in Korea and the United States.  He earned his Bachelor’s of Music degree from the Busan National University, in Busan, South Korea in 1999.  He also received certificates of choral conducting from the Tchaikovsky State Conservatoire Summer School in 2003 and from the Busan Presbyterian University Continuing Education Center in 2005. Currently, he is in graduate school, studying Choral Conducting with Dr. Hae-Jong Lee and working as a graduate assistant at Youngstown State University, in Youngstown, Ohio. He is serving as the assistant conductor of three choirs including Dana Chorale, University Chorus, and Women’s Chorus.  He has also worked as the assistant choral conductor of the Dana Vocal Clinic (2007) and the Stambaugh Community Choir (2008-present), and has served as the assistant chorus master for Opera Western Reserve’s production of Rigoletto in 2007.  He has been the choral director at the Korean Central Presbyterian Church in Cleveland since 2006.  He has many teaching experiences as well as choral conducting experiences. In South Korea, he taught music classes as a full-time music teacher in Nam-Sung Private Elementary School until he left 2006.  He has taught various styles of music, ranging from vocal and choral, to keyboard music; he has also taught music theory and history in a variety of settings. In addition, Dong-Hyun has taught many different types of people, including men and women, young and old. Now, he is looking into doctoral programs in choral conducting.  He is interested in performing not only classical choral compositions, but also jazz music and other contemporary avant-garde styles.   

Linda Rein, Assistant Director