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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. Lee is a two-time recipient of the ASCAP Morton Gould Awards, a 2026 Winter Artist fellow at Yaddo, and has previously held fellowships and residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Tanglewood Music Center, the Aspen Music Festival, and Copland House’s CULTIVATE program. She is looking forward to the public premiere of her work Tiger’s Pipe for the Korean National Symphony Orchestra in the spring of 2026 in South Korea, as well as the premiere of her commission for the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in July 2026 in New York City.
Her recent collaborators include the 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.