News

The Lee University School of Music will present Dr. Muen Vanessa Wei, piano, in a faculty recital on Monday, Feb. 27, at 7:30 p.m. in the Squires Recital Hall.  

The recital will feature works from F. Chopin and Ludwig van Beethoven, two prominent pianists in music history, and will be a continuation of the recital series that Wei began last year, titled “The Chopin Etudes.” Wei will perform Chopin’s “Etudes, Op. 25,” the second set to the Etudes; “Beethoven’s 32 Variations;” and an arrangement of the “Blue Danube Waltz.”  

“Chopin’s two sets of etudes, the first published in 1831 as Op. 10 when the composer was 21 and the second as Op. 25 in 1836, were the first of their kind to combine so masterfully a didactic purpose with purely musical results,” said Wei. “They teach and challenge the fingers as much as they enchant the ears.”  

Wei joined Lee’s School of Music in 2021 as an assistant professor of piano and teaches courses such as applied piano, piano seminar, and piano for ministry. Prior to Lee, she served as a guest professor at China West Normal University and piano faculty at New Tampa Piano and Pedagogy Academy. She has collaborated with many great musicians such as Lynn Harrell, Ian Hobson, Peter Lloyd, and Joel Smirnoff. Wei also has a debut album titled “Im 3/4 Takt” that was considered “one of Centaur’s finest releases to date” by Fanfare.  

Wei earned a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Illinois at Urbana, a Master of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a Bachelor of Music from the China Conservatory of Music.  

The recital is free, non-ticketed, and open to the public. Livestream viewing will be available at leeu.live/. 

For more information about the concert, contact the Lee University School of Music at [email protected] or call (423) 614-8240.