The music of composer Grace Ann Lee 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. 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

Recent orchestral highlights include the April 2026 world premiere of Tiger’s Pipe by the Korean National Symphony Orchestra at the Seoul Arts Center and the July 2026 New York City premiere of Beyond Violet with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. In August 2026, the Korean National Symphony Orchestra Youth Concert Orchestra (KNCO) will present the world premiere of Empress Rising at the Seoul Arts Center, marking Lee’s second premiere at the venue in 2026. Looking ahead to 2027, the Minnesota Orchestra will give five performances of Tiger’s Pipe in February, marking the work’s U.S. premiere. In March, the Korean National Symphony Orchestra will premiere Lee’s third commissioned work as part of her appointment as Composer-in-Residence. Her upcoming projects also include a new commission from the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, supported by the American Composers Orchestra’s Virginia Toulmin Foundation Commission.

Among these recent works, Lee’s celebrated Tiger’s Pipe 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 a contemporary symphonic palette. The work opens with majestic, mystical energy, evoking the beginning of a grand traditional Korean folk tale, and unfolds into an orchestral narrative in which the tiger emerges as a multifaceted symbol: majestic and powerful, yet also playful and mischievous. Long embedded in Korean folklore, painting, and storytelling, the tiger becomes a vehicle through which the music explores cultural memory, humor, and mythology in vivid orchestral form. Listen

A two-time recipient of the ASCAP Morton Gould Award, Lee has spent time in developing her recent 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. 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.