The Seattle Symphony Announces Two New Musicians and Extends Sunny Xia’s Conducting Tenure

The Seattle Symphony announces two new musicians, both of whom made their Symphony debuts during the 2022/2023 season. The Seattle Symphony welcomes violinist SeungHoon Lee as the John & Carmen Delo Associate Principal Second Violin and violinist Ilana Zaks, who began in the Second Violin section and moved to the First Violin section in April. The Symphony is also pleased to announce that Sunny Xia’s tenure is now extended for the 2023/2024 season as Douglas F. King Associate Conductor.

Born in South Korea, SeungHoon Lee started playing the violin at age 5 and received his bachelor‘s and master‘s degrees from Korea National University of Arts, studying with Sung-Ju Lee and Takashi Shimizu. Lee is an active solo musician and chamber music player who has participated in many international festivals, among them, Taipei Music Academy and Festival, Hida-Takayama Music Course, Singapore Violin Festival and International Academy of Arts Festival. He's also won numerous awards and prizes all over the globe, including first prize at the Young Texas Artists Competition. Lee joins the Symphony this season as the newly appointed Associate Principal Second Violin after graduating from Rice University, where he studied under Cho-Liang Lin.

Ilana Zaks grew up in Boston and began playing the violin at the age of 3. She studied with Donald Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory, where she received a Bachelor‘s in Violin Performance. She is an alumna of the Perlman Music Program, where she studied with Itzhak Perlman. Zaks’ many honors include the Yale University Broadus Earle Prize for Outstanding Violinists (2022) and the Yale Women Faculty Forum Seed Grant (2022). She enjoys curating performances featuring multidisciplinary and multimedia collaborations that prioritize the inclusion of works by underrepresented and living composers. In 2020, she directed and recorded the first classical music visual album, The Persistence of Memory, which was released on Amazon Music. Zaks joins the Symphony this season after receiving a master’s degree from Yale University, where she studied with Ani Kavafian.

Recognized for her innate musicality, compelling presence and technical precision, Assistant Conductor Sunny Xuecong Xia joined the Seattle Symphony at the beginning of the 2022/2023 season. During her tenure, she has led many performances, including conducting three Family Concerts, the Celebrate Asia program with violinist Kerson Leong, four Link Up performances and three Community Concerts, which includes this past weekend's world premiere performance of Artist in Residence Angelique Poteat’s new work, Dear Humanity for Youth Chorus and Orchestra. Xia has made a tremendous contribution as the orchestra's Assistant Conductor this season and the Symphony is thrilled to have her continue her tenure as the 2023/2024 season's Douglas F. King Associate Conductor. Read more about her here.