He immigrated to New York with his family as a teenager where he graduated from high school and then enrolled at Williams College, earning a degree, summa cum laude, in philosophy and music in 1976.
In 1992, Yoon Kuk Lee was offered the challenge of creating a new chamber orchestra on the European music scene, which was christened the Salzburger Kammerphilharmonie.
Engaging fine professional musicians around him as their musical director, Lee went on to develop highly innovative concert series in Salzburg and beyond.
One of many note-worthy collaborations was Lee's ambitious project with pianist Cyprien Katsaris between 1996 and 1999 to perform and record the complete works by Mozart for piano and orchestra, all of the concertos but other, lesser known compositions.
In 1999, in response to the strong proposal by Ban Ki-moon, Lee founded the Austrian-Korean Philharmonic in Vienna and served as its artistic director until 2003.