Winner of the 23rd Eckhardt-Gramatté Strings Competition, Elissa Lee has appeared as a soloist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, l’Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, the Boris Brott Festival Orchestra, the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra, l‘Orchestre de Chambre de Montréal and the Royal Conservatory of Music Orchestra.
Elissa Lee was born in Toronto, Canada where she studied with Victor Danchenko at the Royal Conservatory of Toronto and, extensively, with Lorand Fenyves at the University of Toronto where she received a masters degree in performance. As an undergraduate she was the recipient of the prestigious Eaton Scholarship. Elissa Lee then moved to Germany to study privately with Andreas Reiner in Munich and Thomas Brandis at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. There she won second prize in the Gyarfas Competition and her graduation recital was awarded with Excellence. These studies were made possible by two Chalmers Performing Arts Training Grants from the Ontario Arts Council and a Canada Council Grant.
Elissa Lee has held positions as second concertmaster in both the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and the WDR Sinfonie Orchester. Elissa Lee is now enjoying a busy freelance career, frequently on tour performing in the greatest concerts halls and festivals in Europe. She has performed as Concertmaster with the Rundfunk Orchester München, the Swedish Radio Orchestra, the KlangVerwaltung Orchestra in Munich, and Festival Strings Luzern, and in leading positions with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Luxembourg Philhamonic and the Canadian Opera Company. She has also been a guest of world renowned Chamber of Orchestra of Europe, and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and has worked under the baton of Claudio Abaddo, Simon Rattle, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Bernard Haitink and Daniel Harding.
Elissa Lee has had a busy chamber music life as first violinist of the Kamareli Quartet and the Bomari String Quartet. As a chamber musician she has performed with Louie Lortie, Augustin Dumay, Anton Kuerti, Pascal Devoyon, Kevin Fitzgerald, Lawrence Lesser, and Shauna Rolston amongst others and has been a frequent participant of Open Chamber Music in Prussia Cove, England. With pianist Jeanie Chung she won second prize at the 2001 Caltanisetta International Chamber Music Competition and received Honorable Mention at the Vittorio Due Competition in Florence. Elissa Lee joined Ensemble Made in Canada in 2010, which performing concerts and tours throughout Canada.