latest release 07.2021
biography
Long bio:
Yoon-Ji Lee, a South Korean composer currently based in Boston, is a creator of unconventional and non-linear compositions. Marked by a dynamic emphasis on rapid juxtaposition and transformation of disparate elements, her compositions intricately weave together acoustic and electroacoustic mediums while actively embracing interdisciplinary, multimedia, and intercultural influences, delving into themes rooted in contemporary society, history, and culture. Lee’s artistic mission is to promote fresh insights into humanity and the human experience through the exploration of novel musical forms and innovative approaches to sound.
Lee’s recent commissioned projects include Holding Space; After Great Pain for the Society for Electroacoustic Music for the United States, based on Emily Dickinson’s poem; Unending Winter for Fromm Foundation, an ongoing project dedicated to Korean comfort women; Here for McKnight Foundation/American Composers Forum, based on Korean-American writer Kim Jackson’s book of the same name, chronicling the histories of Korean American adoptees; Nine for Carnegie Hill Concert Series, dedicated to Korean comfort women; The Callery Pear Song in Manhattan for Transient Canvas, based on David George Haskell’s book The Songs of Trees about nature in an urban environment; opera Sunday Supper for Summer Labs at National Sawdust, exploring themes of love, control, and alienation through the lens of an immigrant family of Korean heritage, a production with generative interactive video, in collaboration with two visual artists and a librettist; Migration for Hinge Ensemble, about the unsettling of identities resulting from migration; Angels Broken for MusicUnitesUs, based on the field recordings of Korean comfort womens’ singing along with gamin’s piri/taepyungso, written for Lydian string quartet and electronics; Accents for Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble, based on the two rhythmic motives derived from the English accents of a Ceylon immigrant and a British phonetics professor from the film How To Improve Immigrants' English; Contact Place for ensemble mise-en), an electric guitar concerto composed after the choreography of Pina Bausch (soloist JP McShane).
Lee's works have been performed in Korea and the U.S. by Argento Ensemble, Momenta Quartet, JACK Quartet, MIVOS Quartet, ensemble mise-en, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, Either/Or Ensemble, Talea Ensemble, NODUS ensemble, Musique à la Mode, and among others. Festival performances include Re:Sound New & Experimental Music Festival, The New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, The mise-en Music Festival, New York Sound Circuit Festival, OPENSIGNAL Festival, and more. Yoon-Ji Lee’s third and solo debut album Padong (파동) was released on zOaR Records.
Lee is the recipient of the 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship, the 2023 McKnight/American Composers Forum Visiting Composer Fellowship, the 2022 Fromm Foundation Commission, the Artist Fellowship from the Mass Cultural Council, the Jane Geuting Camp Fellowship from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Patsy Lu Award from International Alliance of Women in Music. Lee has been an artist-in-residence at Yaddo, National Sawdust, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, and Atlantic Center for the Arts.
During her formative years, Lee’s musical education centered on piano studies, supplemented by studies in violin, voice, organ, and the traditional Korean P’ansori drum. Following her undergraduate studies at Ewha Woman's University in Seoul, she received her Master’s and Graduate Diploma under the mentorship of Robert Cogan at New England Conservatory in Boston, and Ph.D. at New York University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences under the tutelage of Elizabeth Hoffman and also previously studied with Louis Karchin, where Lee was the first Korean student to be admitted to the composition Ph.D. program, and was supported by the Henry M. MacCracken Fellowship. Lee taught at NYU from 2009 to 2017 and presently serves as an Assistant Professor at Berklee College of Music.
Short bio
Yoon-Ji Lee, a South Korean composer currently based in Boston, is a creator of unconventional and non-linear compositions. Marked by a dynamic emphasis on rapid juxtaposition and transformation of disparate elements, her compositions intricately weave together acoustic and electroacoustic mediums while actively embracing interdisciplinary, multimedia, and intercultural influences, delving into themes rooted in contemporary society, history, and culture.
Lee has received numerous fellowships and artist residencies, including the Guggenheim Fellowship, the McKnight/American Composers Forum Visiting Composer Fellowship, the Fromm Foundation Commission, the Mass Cultural Council Artist Fellowship, Yaddo, National Sawdust, the Virginia Center for the Arts, among others. Lee’s music has been performed in Korea and the U.S. by ensembles including JACK Quartet, International Contemporary Ensemble, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, Argento Ensemble, Talea Ensemble, and Ensemble Mise-en. Her experimental, intercultural, and multimedia opera, Sunday Supper was showcased at National Sawdust in 2018, and is currently undergoing further development for a new production featuring three singers and seven performers.
Lee’s artistic mission is to promote fresh insights into humanity and the human experience through the exploration of novel musical forms and innovative approaches to sound. Her work addresses topics such as the Korean “comfort women,” the unsettling identities resulting from migration, and the NYC subway noise as an embodiment of the city’s different cultures. Upcoming engagements include Holding Space: After Great Pain for double bass and multi-channel electronics commissioned by the Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States, and Here, a large chamber ensemble piece with multimedia about the histories of Korean American adoptees.
Lee received her Ph.D. from New York University, Master’s and Graduate Diploma from New England Conservatory, and a Bachelor’s Degree Ewha Woman University. Lee is currently an Assistant Professor at Berklee College of Music.
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