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The music of composer Grace Ann Lee (b.1996) is based on everyday sounds, imageries, and experiences like raindrops, refracting light, and traffic jams recreated into dynamic and emotive soundscapes. Her recent projects explore Korean identity, weaving cultural memory and personal narrative into storytelling deeply rooted in traditional folklore, melodies, and rhythms.
A recipient of ASCAP Morton Gould Award, Lee is a 2025 artist fellow at the MacDowell Colony and has previously held fellowships at the Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, and Copland House’s CULTIVATE program. In her upcoming season, Lee’s In Crystallized Time will be performed by the American Composers Orchestra in New York City in June 2025; her Cello Concerto for solo cello and eight musicians will be premiered by Will Chow, cellist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and TMC fellows; and her newly commissioned work by the Korean National Symphony Orchestra will premiere in South Korea in November 2025.
Newly appointed Composer-in-Residence of the Korean National Symphony Orchestra for the 2026/2027 season, she has been described in the press as “a composer who elegantly realizes Korean identity through Western orchestral techniques.” Learn more.
Her recent work, Tiger’s Pipe, written for the Korean National Symphony Orchestra, draws inspiration from the traditional Korean phrase “back when tigers smoked pipes,” a storybook expression equivalent to “once upon a time.” The piece weaves Korean folk melodies with the cyclical rhythmic patterns known as jangdan and the timbral language of Gugak ensemble music, reimagined through contemporary symphonic palette.
In the work, the tiger appears as a multifaceted symbol, at once majestic and powerful, yet also playful and mischievous, reflecting its enduring presence in Korean folklore, painting, and storytelling. Through this imagery, the music explores how cultural memory, humor, and mythology can be transformed into a vivid orchestral narrative.
A two-time recipient of the ASCAP Morton Gould Award, Lee has spent the past year developing her new orchestral works at MacDowell Artist Colony and Yaddo, and has previously held fellowships and presented her music at the Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, and Copland House’s CULTIVATE program. In April 2026, her orchestral work Tiger’s Pipe will premiere in Seoul, South Korea, followed in July 2026 by the premiere of her new orchestral work Beyond Violet in New York City with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.
Her recent collaborators include the American Composers Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Mycelium New Music, musicians from the Louisville Orchestra, Buffalo Chamber Players, Front Porch, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, among others. She holds commissions from the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Korean National Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, Sound Mind, United States Air Force Heritage of America Band, the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America, the Music from the Copland House, and Michael Karsher’s Young New Yorkers’ Chorus.
Originally from Seoul, South Korea, Lee holds a Bachelor of Music from Indiana University, a Master of Music from Rice University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Michigan. Her teachers include Roshanne Etezady, Michael Daugherty, Evan Chambers, Kristin Kuster, Erik Santos, Pierre Jalbert, Karim Al-Zand, Shi-Hui Chen, P.Q. Phan, David Dzubay, Aaron Travers, Sven-David Sandström, Claude Baker, Don Freund, and Stephen Shewan.