Finding Her Voice: The Next Aria!

From violin wunderkind to aspiring opera star, Donna Lee has blossomed into a classical bright light that’s about to get even brighter. Elizabeth Kerr reports

PHOTOS BY Andrew J.C. Spires & courtesy of Donna Lee

Not long ago, Donna Lee was a 15-year-old violin wunderkind and budding vocalist with a truckload of competition wins and guest performances with the Hong Kong Orchestra under her belt, on a music scholarship at Discovery College. When we met back in 2023, she was well spoken, if a little reserved, likely the product of her preference for Bach over BTS. But she put up with us and very patiently explained chord progression, what made Bach so singular and why it was such a shame kids her age weren’t more in tune with classical music and opera.

What a difference a few grades make. Now 18 and on her way to the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, Donna would have no trouble telling famously opera-averse movie star Timothée Chalamet what she thinks of his take on opera being an art “no one cares about”.

“I think subconsciously, I always preferred singing,” says Donna of her pivot to voice from violin. The life-altering experience of seeing Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Met in New York, featuring Lisette Oropesa, didn’t hurt. “Violin is very important to me, but I think my interest in singing started to grow more because I realised opera is truly the ultimate art form. You have everything in opera: ballet, singing, theatre, instrumentalism. It’s a colossal art form; it contains every single form possible and so many ways to express a story. It’s just very impactful, and I want to make an impact.” Sit down, Timothée.

On this day, Donna has manoeuvred us towards lunch at her regular spot in DB Plaza, Ona, a go-to since she relocated to Discovery Bay with her family for school. As it turns out, since she first graced these pages, Donna’s held her first solo recital to a full house, debuted at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and performed for the Royal Family of Bhutan. Last year, she studied with Finnish conductor and renowned conducting teacher Jorma Panula, as well as James Boznos, composer and principal timpanist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic.

After finding time to graduate from DC this year, Donna hit pause on composition and conducting to focus on singing, and even gave up her first school choice, Juilliard, in favour of the Hochschule in order to train under legendary violinist and soprano Anna Samuil. That name may not mean much to most of us, but if you’re gunning for a place on the stage at Milan’s La Scala, she’s the teacher to get you there. Would a physics nerd have passed up a chance to study under Stephen Hawking?

“Actually, I was kind of lost. I was reading the bios of professors from conservatories all over and stumbled upon this prestigious conservatory in Germany,” recalls Donna. When she found Samuil, a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory as a violinist and soprano, she thought she’d struck gold. Not only did their artistic backgrounds align, but Samuil also taught two of Donna’s favourite performers: Serena Sáenz, an Operalia competition runner-up, “the Olympics of opera”, and Julia Muzychenko, who placed third at Brussels’ Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2023. “I discovered their styles were similar for a reason; they were both her students,” Donna says. “I decided I needed to learn from this woman.”

What followed was two years of messaging and emails back and forth, and pushback from Samuil, who finally relented and invited Donna to one of her masterclasses.

“So in 2024 November, my dad and I went to Berlin. I impressed her because 16 for a classical singer is really… She called me, like, an embryo or something. Less than a baby. And coming from her you just kind of suck it up.” Donna sang a Mozart aria, Bester Jungling, and eventually won Samuil over.

Donna’s next challenge was to get through the Hochschule’s gruelling audition process. Over the course of a full – and we mean full – day, she had to sing two arias; perform a monologue; sit for an interview in front of a panel of 11 professors, all in German by the way; pass a piano exam (she’s a violinist, remember) and sit a music theory exam. In the end, she was accepted into the school, and into Samuil’s elite programme that enrolled just two applicants this year. If the visa process goes smoothly, she’ll be heading to Berlin this month.

Given the demands of her education and training, it’s easy to see how Donna’s last years at DC were on the solitary side. She says her physical maturity and deeper technical knowledge – much of which she credits to DC’s support – have made her a better singer, but interpreting music comes from living.

“I have a lot of friends at Hochschule already because I go there so often. Which is strange because at DC I had just one friend in my grade. In Berlin I have many, because finally it’s a place where I fit in,” she states bluntly.

Donna is intensely aware of how much school she missed for masterclasses (she followed Samuil to Brussels, Changsha and Shanghai), competitions and performances in Hong Kong and farther afield, and how much of her school life was catching up on the IB curriculum on her own. By her count, she took 28 flights last year, executive flight numbers. She’s thankful for the school’s support, but says she found DC difficult socially.

“It’s hard to step into the stream when you’re so rarely there. And then what do we talk about? I’ve dedicated my life to something so early on that few people know much about. I still don’t know what a PS5 is and they don’t know what I do. Which is completely okay, but yeah. What do you talk about?”

Donna would talk about opera: how it’s underappreciated by her generation and, in truth, entirely relevant. “It addresses so much in our world today in a way that transcends fast-paced, dopamine-driven art,” she says, settling in to make her own impact. And she means it. Donna has no problem admitting she’d love to be the singer some young girl waits for outside the theatre, the way she once waited for Sáenz. And awkward as the conversation is, she’d love to be at the crest of more Asian women on the operatic stage at La Scala, or the Met, or Teatro Colón, or Wiener Staatsoper. Donna and a Korean student are the only ones entering Samuil’s voice programme this year.

“I’m very proud I got into this programme, and it already means a lot,” Donna finishes. “But it will mean more when there are more Asian women actually on the big operatic stages.” One is on the way.