Hyun Kyung Lee is a Korean-born composer, pianist, educator, and music arranger based in New York City. Her music has been performed across the United States, Korea, Asia, and Europe by ensembles including the American Modern Ensemble, Da Capo Chamber Players, Contemporaneous, Mivos Quartet, Global Peace and Music Ensemble, Vigil Ensemble, and CME Ensemble. Her works have been presented at major festivals and concert series, including the Seoul Arts Center International Music Festival, Brevard Music Center Summer Institute and Festival, Asian Classical Music Initiative Conference, New Music Series at William Paterson University, Con Vivo Music (CVM), Art Fair 14C, and the Daegu International Contemporary Music Festival.
Lee’s compositional practice is characterized by an expressive approach to orchestration and arranging, with particular attention to timbre, instrumental color, and the expressive possibilities of acoustic instruments. Her work often engages with cultural memory, personal experience, and musical traditions across different contexts. She is also an active collaborator in interdisciplinary projects, working with artists from diverse fields, including choreographer Artis Smith and visual artists Seongmin Ahn and Heather Williams. Through these collaborations, she explores relationships among music, movement, visual art, and other forms of creative expression.
As a scholar, Lee’s research focuses on contemporary music analysis, cross-cultural musical exchange, and the ways composers engage with instruments, sonic practices, and cultural references across contexts. She has presented her research at conferences and symposia including the Penn State New Music Festival and Symposium, the International Conference on Women’s Work in Music (WWM) in the United Kingdom, the Graduate Center Dissertation Showcase, and the Asian Classical Music Initiative (ACMI). She earned her Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition from the Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY), where her dissertation, “Unsuk Chin’s Hyper-Sheng: Sonic and Structural Development in Šu for Sheng and Orchestra,” examines how Unsuk Chin integrates the Chinese sheng with Western orchestral practices to create an expanded sonic and structural conception of the instrument.
Lee’s artistic and academic work has been recognized through numerous fellowships, grants, scholarships, and composition awards. During her doctoral studies, she received the Graduate Center Teaching Fellowship, Presidential Research Fund for Doctoral Student Travel Grant, and Elebash Scholarship, as well as the Morton Feldman Composition Award from CUNY Brooklyn College. Her compositions have also received recognition from institutions including The Korea Times, the Contemporary Music Society in Seoul, ISCM Section Korea, and the Daegu International Contemporary Music Festival.
A committed advocate for music as a form of cultural and social engagement, Lee is the founder and co-director of the Global Peace and Music Foundation (GPAMF) & Ensemble (GPAME), which she leads with violinist Ji In Yang. Founded in New York City, the organization brings together musicians and artistic collaborators from different cultural backgrounds to explore music’s capacity to foster dialogue, solidarity, and peace. Its activities have included binational concert projects in New York and Seoul commemorating the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, as well as performances and cultural initiatives presented at the Korean Cultural Center New York and Seoul Arts Center.
Lee also maintains an active career as a pianist, performing in solo, collaborative, and ensemble settings. Her performance activities have included appearances with the Korea Symphony Orchestra and the Korea Wind Society Ensemble. She additionally works as a church musician, pianist, accompanist, and arranger in liturgical contexts.
Dr. Lee has been a faculty member at CUNY Brooklyn College since 2014, where she teaches music theory, composition, aural skills, and keyboard studies at the undergraduate and graduate levels. She is also the Director of the Composers at the Piano Concert Series, a program of the Brooklyn College Composers’ Forum that features composers performing their own works. Her teaching and mentorship integrate analytical listening, theoretical understanding, performance, and creative practice.
Lee studied composition with distinguished composers and scholars including Tania León, David Schober, Ben Bierman, Jeff Nichols, Anne Stone, Ursula Oppens, Gee-Bum Kim, and Seungwoo Paik. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition from the Graduate Center.