MIMI LEE (piano) is a founding member of B3LLA. Her musical journey began at the age of 4, learning her first piece by just watching her older sister practice through a window. She eventually studied piano as a child at Juilliard, before continuing on to Harvard. Music, and connecting with others through music, has always been her passion. She relishes in the magic and comeraderie of creatively combining several voices to telling a compelling story and sharing it with others.
Mimi's also partners with violinist Jeremy Preston, the Principal Second Violinist of the SF Opera. Their duo, bella2, is passionately dedicated to inspiring others though the intimacy of violin - piano works - in a style that's engaging and utterly sympathetic to our common human experience. They have also been Resident Artists at the International Banff Centre for the Arts and are currently working towards recoding their version of The Complete Beethoven Sonatas for Violin and Piano for modern audiences.
Mimi studied piano with Kathryn Parker and Victor Rosenbaum, both themselves students of Mme. Rosina Lhevinne, and has worked with Manachem Pressler, Leon Kirchner, Earl Kim, Ani Kavafian, Peter Wiley, Gilbert Kalish, Vivian Weilierstein, and members of the Juilliard, Cleveland, Brentano, Alexander and St. Lawrence String Quartets. She has studied and performed at the the Lincoln Center Society for Chamber Music, the 92nd Street Y, the Bowdoin Music Festival, Juilliard, and Harvard.
Mimi graduated from the Juilliard School of Music's Pre-College Division. She holds an AB in Chemistry and East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University, and an MD-PhD in Neuroscience from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She is a Board-Certified anesthesiologist, avid swimmer, yogini, underwater photographer and breast cancer survivor.