The violinist auditioned for the position the day after flying back from a six-week tour of Asia
American violinist Angela Wee has been appointed as principal associate concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
’I am still processing the news,’ Wee told The Violin Channel. ’It all happened very quickly because I landed at JFK from Korea on a six-week tour with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle the day right before the audition. The jetlag made me delirious…but maybe in a way it helped.’
Wee recently graduated from the Juilliard School where she studied under Donald Weilerstein and Masao Kawasaki. In 2021, she was recipient of the Juilliard Career Advancement Fellowship Grant and now assists in the pre-college violin and chamber faculty.
During her studies, Wee won second prize in the Sarasate International Competition and was a finalist in the Menuhin International Violin Competition in Beijing in 2012. After winning the Salomé Chamber Orchestra Competition in 2013, Wee was awarded a Stradivari on which to perform at Carnegie Hall.
Since beginning her performing career at the age of six, Wee has played as a soloist with the Navarra Symphony Orchestra, Poznań Symphony Orchestra, Polish Sinfonia Luventus Orchestra, Massapequa Philharmonic and the New York Chamber Orchestra.
Wee is the co-founder of Sana, a violin duo that performs concerts to offer solace and healing to communities, and she partners with organisations throughout New York City to promote awareness on social justice issues.