A Korean, “beautiful, stentorian soprano” Yeonji Lee reprised her signature role Setsuko Kobayashi in ‘An American Dream’ in Opera Idaho 2023 production.

 

She portrayed the Japanese teenager who, along with her family, was sent to an incarceration camp during WWII. She is praised as the “Star of the show” and “She makes the most pivotal role of the Setsuko”(Seattle Times), when she made a Seattle Opera debut(2017) as Setsuko in An American Dream. She reprised her signature role Setsuko at Anchorage Opera(2019) and Virginia Opera(2019).

 

Opera News hailed her for 'humorously and effectively evoked' Papagena at The Magic Flute production of Opera Maine. Yeonji’s other roles include Norina in Don Pasquale, Monica in Medium, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Vitellia in La Clemenza di Tito, Tuptim in The King and I, where she appeared on various stages in Europe, North America, and Asia. 

 

Other recent performances include Mary Bolkonskya at the Korean premiere of Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet 1812, the Broadway musical with 12 Tony nominations in 2016. Her collaboration performances with installation artist Mingwei Lee in the Sonic Blossom project, where she sang Schubert's Lieder at Centre Pompidou in Paris and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC were nationally and internationally acknowledged.

 

Her collaborative operatic work extended to world-renowned Pop singers such as Sam Lee’s Face II ‘WHERE'S THE TRUTH?’ Album (2023, Warner Music). She is the winner of the Randolph Mickelson Memorial NYIOP Prize in the NYIOP/Premiere Opera Foundation competition. She received both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Manhattan School of Music in New York.