Hyun Kyung Lee is a Korean-born composer, pianist, educator, and music arranger currently based in New York City. She is the founder and co-director of the Global Peace and Music Foundation (GPAMF), an organization dedicated to creating music that promotes world peace and addresses related social issues. Hyun Kyung’s contributions as a cultural ambassador of Korean contemporary music have been especially significant. From 2018 to 2019, she led a binational concert project in New York and Seoul with violinist Ji In Yang, commemorating the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, supported by the PyeongChang Winter Olympics Organizing Committee and the Korean Cultural Center in New York. This series not only celebrated a historic sporting event but also highlighted the role of music as a form of cultural diplomacy and dialogue.

Many prestigious Korean institutions and festivals have recognized Hyun Kyung as a recipient of numerous awards and honors. Her accolades include awards from The Korea Times, the Contemporary Music Society in Seoul, ISCM Section Korea, and the Daegu Contemporary Music Festival, reflecting her unique voice in Korean contemporary classical composition. She was also honored with a scholarship from the Grace Mission Foundation, supporting her artistic development during her formative years.

During her doctoral studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), Dr. Lee received several major academic and artistic fellowships and prizes, including the Graduate Center Teaching Fellowship, the Presidential Research Fund for Doctoral Student Travel Grant, an Elebash Scholarship, and the Morton Feldman Composition Award from CUNY Brooklyn College. These honors supported her academic research and artistic practice across performance, analysis, and composition.

Her works have been performed throughout the United States, Korea, Japan, and Europe, by esteemed ensembles and performers such as the American Modern Ensemble, Da Capo Chamber Players, Contemporaneous, Mivos Quartet, Vigil Ensemble, CME Ensemble, GPAMF Ensemble, Korea Wind Society Ensemble, Bangta Percussion Ensemble, and ISCM Korea. Her music has been showcased at major festivals and series, including the Brevard Music Center Summer Institute and Festival, the Asian Classical Music Initiative Conference, New Music Series at William Paterson University, Con Vivo Music (CVM), Art Fair 14C, the Daegu Contemporary Music Festival, and the Concerts Commemorating the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in both New York and Seoul.

In addition to her work as a composer, Hyun Kyung is a highly regarded arranger known for her innovative and expressive orchestrations. One of her most celebrated projects is the Beatles on Baroque concert, where she reimagined classic Beatles songs through a Baroque lens, creating a unique sonic fusion of eras. Her collaborations extend across artistic disciplines, including work with choreographer Artis Smith and visual artist Seongmin Ahn, as well as Heather Williams, further demonstrating her versatility and openness to interdisciplinary creativity.

As a pianist, Hyun Kyung has performed with the Korea Symphony Orchestra and the Korea Wind Society Ensemble, and remains an active performer in both solo and collaborative settings. She is also a dedicated church musician, serving regularly as a pianist, accompanist, and arranger in liturgical contexts.

Her academic training includes studies with distinguished composers and scholars such as Tania León, David Schober, Ben Bierman, Jeff Nichols, Ursula Oppens, Anne Stone, Gee-Bum Kim, and Seungwoo Paik. She earned her Master of Music in Composition from Brooklyn College (CUNY) and her Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in Composition from the Graduate Center (CUNY). Her dissertation, titled “Unsuk Chin’s Hyper-Sheng: Sonic and Structural Development in Šu for Sheng and Orchestra,” offers an analytical study of Chin’s groundbreaking work, exploring how the composer integrates the Chinese sheng and full orchestra to form a “hyper-sheng” – a structural and sonic extension of the traditional solo instrument through orchestral interaction.

As a scholar, Dr. Lee has actively presented her research at conferences and symposia around the world, including the Penn State New Music Festival and Symposium, the International Conference on Women’s Work in Music (WWM) in the United Kingdom, the Asian Classical Music Initiative (ACMI), and the CUNY Graduate Center Dissertation Showcase.

Hyun Kyung has been a faculty member at CUNY Brooklyn College since 2014, where she teaches music theory, composition, oral skills, and keyboard studies. She is also the Director of the Composers at the Piano Concert Series, a program within the Brooklyn College Composers’ Forum, which highlights original works performed by composers themselves.