Samuel Lee, the first prize winner of the BMI International Conducting Competition in Bucharest and the International Conducting Competition in Taipei, as well as a semifinalist in The Mahler Competition 2023, was appointed Assistant Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, starting in the 2022–23 season. He was subsequently promoted to Associate Conductor in August 2023.

Lee has guest conducted numerous orchestras, making notable debuts with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Bamberg Symphony, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Nuremberg Symphony, Bucharest Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic, and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. His recent engagements also include serving as a cover conductor for the Minnesota Orchestra and ProMusica Chamber Orchestra. He gained valuable experience working alongside renowned conductors such as Cristian Măcelaru, Vladimir Jurowski, Yannick NézetSéguin, and Marin Alsop.

In addition to his conducting career, Lee is a skilled violist, performing with orchestras worldwide. He was a member of the Novus String Quartet and earned prizes at international competitions. He also served as a viola professor at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig. 

Samuel Lee's educational background includes studies at the University of Music Hanns Eisler Berlin and the University of Music Hamburg and Theater.

Following the example of Lucerne, Switzerland, Tongyeong Festival Orchestra (TFO) was created to enhance the musical spectrum of the Tongyeong International Music Festival, and to serve as an artistic ambassador for Tongyeong City, a UNESCO Creative City of Music. Since its first edition in 2002, the festival has been striving to assemble outstanding musicians to build its own “Ensemble TIMF” - specialized in contemporary music. Together with members of Munich Chamber Orchestra and other musicians from abroad, conductor Alexander Liebreich formed the first “Tongyeong Festival Orchestra” in 2011. Ever since, the orchestra has been assembled annually for performances in Tongyeong, Korea and overseas. 

Among the Festival Orchestra musicians are members of the Munich Philharmonic, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Zurich Opera, Kremerata Baltica, National Symphony Orchestra Washington, DC, Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, and many others.

Tongyeong Festival Orchestra regularly works with conductors such as Heinz Holliger, Christoph Poppen, Michael Sanderling, Christoph Eschenbach, Stefan Soltesz, Ken-David Masur, Stefan Asbury, Alexander Liebreich, Sascha Goetzel, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Markus Stenz, Dalia Stasevska and David Robertson.

In 2017, the orchestra presented its first opera performance with Isang Yun's ‹Dream of Liu Tung›. Later in the year, the orchestra went on a European tour, presenting music by Yun and Ravel in Germany, Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. In 2015 and 2018, Tongyeong Festival Orchestra partnered with Hong Kong Sinfonietta and Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa (Japan). Musicians from Korea, Japan, and China came together for an Asian tour, forming a musical bridge between the three countries. In 2019, the orchestra performed Richard Wagner's opera ‹Walküre› at the Tongyeong International Music Festival and Seong-Jin Cho & Friends Festival with Pianist Seong-Jin Cho. In 2023, the Royal Northern Sinfonia from the UK participated as members of TFO, and the orchestra gave the Asian premiere of Unsuk Chin's Violin Concerto No. 2 "Shards of Silence" and Isang Yun's Symphonic Scene at the Tongyeong International Music Festival 2023.