Mihae Lee will do something for the upcoming Essex Winter Series (EWS) concerts which she will never do again: She will greet the audience from the podium onstage. That is because Mihae is retiring from the EWS, and this will be her last run as its artistic director.

“Fifteen years is enough,” she says.

Still, Mihae is not retiring from everything. She will continue to head the Chestnut Hill Concerts, the series of four Friday-night chamber music performances in August. She will also continue as head of the Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival, a summer concert series in Maine.

The upcoming EWS concert series starts on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025 with the Brentano String Quartet, along with Mihae on the piano, followed on Sunday, Feb. 23 by the Stu Ingersoll Jazz Concert featuring jazz master Jeff Barnhart’s Essex Eight.

The performance on Saturday, March 9 honors EWS founder, the late Fenton Brown, with the emerging artist concert named in his honor. The featured artists will be the Terra String Quartet, who were the prizewinners in the 2023 Melbourne and Osaka International Chamber music competitions.

The final concert on Saturday, April 6 will highlight eight former emerging artist performers who have gone beyond the category of promising artists to achieve success in the concert world, says Mihae.

“They have emerged. They are having wonderful careers,” she says, pointing to Romanian-born cellist Mihai Marica, whose résumé includes lauded solo appearances with orchestras in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

The musicians at the final concert will be performing with award-winning flutist Tara Helen O’Connor, who will assume the position of artistic director of EWS for the 2026 season. O’Connor, a professor at the Yale School of Music, has performed widely throughout the U.S., as well as internationally as a member of chamber groups, symphony orchestras, and as a soloist.

As she looks back on her decade-and-a-half of heading the EWS, Mihae feels particularly satisfied with an innovation connected to the emerging artist concerts: the outreach programs in which emerging artists visit schools and other facilities to give programs.

“I wanted to do things that had not been done before,” she says.

The outreach started with one day of visits to local schools and health centers. Now, it has grown to four days with musicians entertaining audiences of both school children and senior citizens in an area from Groton to Middletown.

“I am working the artists to death, but they love it. They are so energized. They always want to come back,” Mihae says.

Mihae notes that a grant from the Community Foundation of Middlesex County helped the growth of the outreach efforts.

As music programs are often among the first things cut when schools have budget problems, Mihae says the outreach programs assume added importance.

“Children need to hear classical music,” Mihae says. “If they don’t hear it, why would we expect them to know anything about it?”

Mihae points out that the children who do learn about classical music might not necessarily become musicians, but could be members of the audience at a concert. Still, that takes time. Mihae laments the fact that it is so difficult to get young people to attend concerts, even when free tickets are offered.

Mihae feels grateful for the opportunities that being artistic director of EWS give her in terms of bringing music and noted musicians, many of whom are personal friends, to both Essex and the surrounding shoreline communities.

“It’s amazing how much incredible music we have in these small communities, so I will miss that, along with meeting so many interesting people through EWS,” she says.

Mihae has plans for what comes next in her life. She would like to spend more time with her grandchildren, who are both now junior high school students who live in Westchester County in New York. It is not simply a case of visits from grandma, but a chance to provide real assistance to her daughter Lili Thomas, who is appearing in the Broadway revival of Gypsy, starring Audra McDonald. Previews started in November, and the show officially opens on Thursday, Dec. 19.

In addition, Mihae needs to spend time with her 95-year-old mother, who lives by herself in Korea. Her mother, a musician, was Mihae’s first piano teacher. Mihae and her two sisters, musicians who live in Berlin, are taking turns visiting their mom. They worry about her being alone at night, Mihae explains.

Mihae would also like to do one thing which is often high on the list of people finding a bit more time in their schedule: travel. Mihae and her husband, Bill Purvis, a French hornist and professor at the Yale School of Music, have scheduled an upcoming trip to Italy in May.

One thing never changes as Mihae moves on: her loyalty to the New York Yankees. While this year’s World Series did not turn out the way she had hoped, Mihae did have a special moment. She was able to get tickets to a game and, even though the Yankees lost to the Dodgers, her grandson told her that it was the best day of his life.

Although the Yankees came up a little shy of grabbing the brass ring, Mihae says the words which always make baseball fans keep on believing.

“Wait till next year,” she says.

For Information on the Essex Winter Series and to purchase tickets, visit: essexwinterseries.org.