photographed by meun chun
BIO
Okkyung Lee is a cellist, composer, and improviser who moves freely between artistic disciples and contingencies. Since 2000 she has worked in disparate contexts as a solo artist and collaborator with creators from a wide range of disciplines. A native of South Korea, Lee has taken a broad array of inspirations—including noise, improvisation, jazz, western classical, and her homeland’s traditional and popular music—and used them to forge a highly distinctive approach.
Although Okkyung is probably known best for her improvisational work utilizing visceral extended techniques on her instrument, she has been creating various types of compositions and site-specific works, responding to its architecture, audience, or objects surrounding her, producing an immersive experience that also challenges the built-in hierarchy in traditional concert settings. |She has appeared on more than 30 albums, including the latest release 나를 (Na-Reul) on Corbett vs Dempsey, and Teum (The Silvery Slit), written for acclaimed Acousmonium by GRM and live cello, released on GRM Portraits/Editions Mego.
Okkyung has been commissioned to compose music and assemble projects for numerous festivals including the most recent work “Signals” with London-based new music ensemble Explore Ensemble which will premier at Transit Festival (Leuven, The Netherlands), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (Huddersfield, UK) and Rainy Days Festival at Luxembourg in the fall of 2024. She has presented new works at Time Spans Festival (New York, USA), Groupe de Recherches Musicales (Paris, France), Sonic Acts Festival (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Borealis Festival (Bergen, Norway), Donaueschinger Music Festival (Donaueschingen, Germany) and Nam June Paik Art Center (Yong-In, South Korea). She has performed in the Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA), Whitney Museums of American Art (New York, USA), The Met Breuer (New York, USA), Museum Tinguely (Basel, Switzerland), Museo del Novecento (Milan, Italy), Serpentine Galleries (London, UK), White Cube Galleries (London, UK) and many others.
She was a resident at La Becque Artist Residency, in La Becque, Switzerland in 2023, Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany in 2017, and Civitella Ranieri in Umbria, Italy in 2015. Okkyung received the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant in 2010, and a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award in 2015.
She received a dual Bachelor’s Degree in Contemporary Writing & Production and Film Scoring from Berklee College of Music in 1998 and a Master’s Degree in Contemporary Improvisation from New England Conservatory of Music in 2000.
Currently Okkyung is a 2025 fellow of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin-Program.
CV
Okkyung Lee (b. 1975) cellist, composer and improviser
Selected Discography
Just Like Any Other Day (어느날) (Shelter Press), 2025
Two Duos with Jérome Nôetinger and Nadia Ratsimandresy (Otoroku), 2022
나를 (Na-Reul) (Corbett vs. Dempsey), 2021
Teum (The Silvery Slit) split album with florian hacker (GRM/Editions Mego), 2020
Yeo-Neun (Shelter Press), 2020
The Air Around Her with Ellen Fullman (1703 Skivbolaget), 2018
Speckled Stones and Green Dissonant Dots (Notice Recordings), 2018
Cheol-Kkot-Sae (Steel.Flower.Bird) (Tzadik), 2018
Amalgam with Christian Marclay (Northern Spy), 2016
The Glowing Man by Swans (Young God Records), 2016
Live at Cafe Oto with Bill Orcutt (OtoRoku), 2016
A Pattern for Becoming by Mark Fell (Tapeworm), 2015
Apocalypse, Girl by Jenny Hval, (Sacred Bones), 2015
Live at Stone with Bill Nace and Chris Corsano (Open Mouth), 2015
Pub Crawl Part I & II written for members of London Sinfonietta (The Vinyl Factory), 2015
Wake Up Awesome with C Spencer Yeh & Lasse Marhaug (Mexican Summer/Software) 2013
Holding It Down: The Veterans’ Dreams Project by Vijay Iyer and Mike Ladd (Pi) 2013
P.A./Hard Love by Marina Rosenfeld (Room40) 2013
Ghil (Editions Mego/Ideologic Organ) 2013
White Cable, Black Wires with John Edwards (FaKaTa) 2013
Noisy Love Songs (for George Dyer) (Tzadik) 2011
I saw the Ghost of an Unknown Soul and it Said… (Ecstatic Peace!) 2008
Nihm (Tzadik) 2005
Selected Past Performances (premiers in bold)
Silpuri for solo cello and pre-recorded materials, Triennale, Milan, Italy May 2025
Duo with Rashad Becker, Museo MAXXI, Rome, Italy, April 2025
Skylight, written for BIT20 Ensemble, Borealis Festival, Bergen, Norway, March 2025
별 (another grey shooting star) written for solo live cello and pre-constructed multichannel sound materials for PRÉSENCES életronique 20th anniversary concert by INA GRM at Radio France, Paris, France, November 2024
Signals written for Explore Ensemble, commissioned by Transit Festival (Leuven, Belgium), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (Huddersfield, UK) and Rainy Days Festival (Luxembourg), October-November 2024
Original music for Mame Kurogouchi Runway show, Paris, France, September 2024, March 2025 and September 2025
Silpuri for solo cello and pre-recorded materials at Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea, September 2024
Project Ghil.Lo for 6 performers at World Music Festival, Gwangju, South Korea, August 2024
Silpuri for solo cello and pre-recorded materials at Mode Exchange at Sogetsu Hall, Tokyo, Japan, June 2024
3 day residency at Cafe Oto, London, UK, June 2024
Solo performance at Oscillation Festival, Brussels, Belgium, May 2024
Original sound for The Ephemeral Lake by Jacob Kudsk-Steensen at Hamburg Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany, April 2024
Mini tour with Mark Fell at Archaplus, Prague, Czechia, Fuga in Bratislava, Slovakia and FaVU in Brno, Czechia, March 2024
Silpuri for solo cello and pre-recorded materials, Editions Festival, Stockholm, Sweden, February 2024
Original score for Big small feet by Donna Uchizono, the Perelman Performing Arts Center, New York, NY, USA December 2023
Unsound Festival, Krakow, Poland, October 2023
Silpuri for solo cello and pre-recorded materials at ICA, London, UK; Tempo Reale Festival, Florence, Italy; Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland; Blaues Rauchen Festival, Essen, Germany, all in June 2023
Trio with Marcus Schmickler and Thomas Lehn at MACRO, Rome, Italy, April 2023
Yeo-Neun Quartet at Rewire Festival, Den Haag, The Netherlands; Bourse de Commerce, Paris, France; Le Lieu Unique Festival, Nantes, France, all in April 2023
Whistling & Whirling for cello and pre-recorded materials, Festival Présences, Radio France,Paris, France, February 2023
2 solo concerts at TUNE series, Haus Der Kunst, Munich, Germany, November 2022
Xenakis 100 by Atonal Festival, Kraftwerk, Berlin, Germany, November 2022
RHAMESJAFACOSEYJAFADRAYTON by Arthur Jafa with Jason Moran and Melvin Gibbs, ogr, Torino, Italy, November 2022
Manghyang, written and arranged for Sofia Jernberg and String Ensemble, Wiener Festwochen and Monheim Triennale, June and July 2022
Original score for Wings of Iron, new choreographed work by Donna Uchizono, Baryshinikov Dance Center, New York, NY, May 2022
Sonorities Festival, Belfast, Ireland, April 2022
Silpuri and Improvisation at Sounds On Showcase, Mullae Art Factory, Seoul, Korea, September 2021
필드 기억 (Field Memory) with Kim Hee-Cheon, sound installation at NJP Art Center, Yong-In, Seoul, August-November 2021
d/p I, II & III for Elevation/Circulation exhibition, audiovisual pieces, d/p, Seoul, Korea, December 20201
Improvisation with Song-Hee Kwon and Jaehyo Chang, produced by Korean Traditional Music Radio, cote, Seoul, Korea, November 2021
Open Space: Focus on David Behrman, Serralves, Porto, Portugal, November 2021
traces (항상 떠나야만 하는 누군가를 위해… / for those who always have to leave…), audiovisual piece commissioned for Poesia en Voz Alta Festival, Mexico City, Mexico, October 2021
spacial performance at We’ll Start a Fire exhibition by Marina Rosenfeld, Kunsthausbaselland, Basel, Switzerland, September 2021
맞닿은 하늘 / The Touching of Skies, Distant Pairs project with Louis Carnell, commissioned by Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, NY, USA, July 2021
÷ / + for Nam June Paik’s birthday, NJP Art Center, Yong-In, Korea, July 2021
다시 또 봄… / spring time… yet again…, audiovisual piece commissioned for frameless 30, Munich, Germany, May 2021
틈/Teum (Silvery Slit) for cello and pre-recorded materials at Elevate Festival, Graz, Austria, March 2020
Musical response to Haegue Yang’s exhibition Handles at MOMA, New York, February 2020
Terry Riley Live at 85 Concert, performing A Rainbow on Curved Air with Angel Deradoorian, Greg Fox, Justin Frye, Ben Greenberg, Yuka C. Honda, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY, USA, December 2019
Parallel Concert Series by Vancouver New Music, Vancouver, Roundhouse, Vancouver, Canada, November 2019
Love, You Son of a Bitch, by Letizia Renzini with music by Scarlatti and Giuseppe Ielasi, Staastoper, Berlin, Germany, October 2019
(once upon a time) we used to share this same light… for 5 musicians, sound spatialization and a performer, commissioned by Time:Spans Festival, DiMenna Center, New York, NY, USA, August 2019
Five Ghosts and their Incurable Melancholia for cello and pre-recorded materials, commissioned by Musica Sanae, Naples, Italy, May 2019
Performance residency week at The Stone, New York, NY, USA, April 2019, October 2018, January 2018, October 2017, October 2016 and May 2014
Live response to Haegue Yang’s Tracing Movement exhibition at South London Gallery, London, UK, March 2019
Duo performance with Haroon Mirza, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA, USA, April 2019
틈/Teum (The Silvery Slit) for cello and pre-recorded materials, commissioned by Sonic Acts and GRM through Reimagine Europe, Sonic Acts Festival, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, February 2019 & Festival Présences Életronique , Paris, France, March 2019
Huddersfiled Contemporary Music Festival, Huddersfield, United Kingdom, 2011, 2012 & 2018
Original Score to Portrait of Janus (Divided States) by Douglas Gordon at Void Gallery, Derry, UK, November 2018
grey shooting stars (for yun dong-ju) for cello and pre-recorded sound materials, BludenzerTage Zeitgemächer Musik, Bludenz, Austria, November 2018
New Music Circle Concerts Series, St. Louis, MO, USA, September 2018 & February 2015
hutton sori for cello and computer generated sounds, Der Sommer in Stuttgart Festival, Theaterhaus, Stuttgart, Germany, July 2018
Spatial Audio Concert with Markus Noisternig and Rama Gottfried, EMPAC, Troy, New York, July 2018
Prelude to The Shed concert with Arca, New York, NY, USA, May 2018
New Echoes Series with Christian Marclay and Luc Müller, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy, April 2018
Time after Time, Space after Space, Concerto Speziale by Fondazione Furla with Christian Marclay and Luc Müller, Museo del Novecento, Milan, Italy, April 2018
Big Ears Festival, Knoxville, TN, USA, March 2018
Sonic Acts Festival, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2012 & 2018
CTM Festival, Berlin, Germany, January 2018
Museum Tinguely with Christian Marclay and Luc Müller, Basel, Switzerland, January 2018
UH Festival, Budapest, Hungary, October 2017
West Coast and Canada tour with Swans, August 2017
Calder: Hypermobility with Christian Marclay, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA, July 2017
mostly miroh, commissioned by Ensemble Maze, Bimhuis, Amsterdam, June 2017
Performance residency at the French Pavilion by Xavier Veilhan, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, June 2017
Intonal Festival, Malmö, Sweden, May 2017
still hoping for a miracle…? for 4 musicians and audience, Borealis Festival, Bergen, Norway, March 2017
Geometry of Now Festival, Moscow, Russia, February 2017
Solo performance, Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA, USA, February 2017
MOFO MONA, Hobart, Australia, January 2017
Sydney Festival, with Ellen Fullman, Sydney, Australia, January 2017
Cheol-Kkot-Sae (Steel.Flower.Bird) for 2 Korean traditional musicians and 5 improvisers, SWR2 commissioned piece for Donaueschinger Musiktage, Donaueschingen, Germany, October 2016
Soom-Shi-Ghi written for musical robots, Wir Sind die Roboters, Musikbreurei, Berlin, Germany, September 2016
Okkyung Lee Takes Over Jazz House 4-day festival, Copenhagen, Denmark, September 2016 USA and Canadian tour with Swans, July 2016
Parallelle Liv by Jonas Corell Petersen at Dramatikken hus, Oslo, Norway, June 2016
Il Ballo delle Ingrate by Letizia Renzini at Opera Dagen Festival, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, May 2016
Mary & Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, May 2016
Closing concert, Cecil Taylor’s Open Plan exhibition at The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA, April 2016
Red Eclipse for 11 strings and 1 percussion, Roulette, Brooklyn, NY, USA, April 2016
#theshitoutofus with Michelle Boulé, The Met Breuer, New York, NY, USA, March 2016
Sonic Acts Festival, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, February 2012 & 2016
First Edition Festival, Fylkingen, Stockholm, Sweden, February 2016 & 2014
Asian Meeting Festival, Tokyo, Kyoto, Kobe, Japan, February 2016
Wants & Desires with Andrew Lampert at The Drawing Center, New York, NY, USA, January 2016
Solo at EMAPC, Troy, NY, USA, January 2016
Zoom Festival, Bern, Switzerland, November 2015
4-day Performance Residency at Cafe Oto, London, UK, October 2015
Monterey Jazz Festival, Moneterey, CA, USA, September 2015
Festival Météo, Mulhouse, France, August 2015
Scandinavia, Northern Europe and UK tour with Swans, May 2015
International Festival Musique Actuelle Victoriaville, Victoriaville, Canada, 2005 & 2015
Pub Crawl Day I & II, Commissioned by London Sinfonietta for Christian Marclay’s Exhibit, White Cube Gallery, London, UK, March, 2015
Bringing the Gap 2015, Center for Contemporary Arts, Singapore, March 2015
Off The Page Festival, Oslo, Norway, January 2015
All Ears Festival, Oslo, Norway, January 2015
Winter Interpretations School, Q-O2, Brussels, Belgium, 2014
Le Guess Who? Festival, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 2014
Contemporary Center for Arts, Kitakyushu, Japan, 2014
Skanu Mesz Festival, Riga, Latvia, 2014
Broken Sky at Real DMZ Project, Cherwon, South Korea, 2014
I of Eye, with Soomi Jang, LIG Art Center, Seoul, South Korea, 2014
RedBull Academy, New York, NY 2014
MuseRuole Festival, Bolzano, Italy, 2014
Jazzfestivalen, Bergen, Norway, 2014
Borderline Festival, Athens, Greece, 2014
Gori and Bahndahl with Laura Ortman and Ches Smith, at The Kitchen, New York, USA, 2014
Oslo Screen Festival, Oslo, Norway, 2014
Next // Advanced Music Festival, Bratislava, Slovakia, 2013
Music Unlimited Festival, Wels, Austria, 2009, 2011, 2012 & 2013
Silence, Exile, Deceit by Douglas Gordon at Ruhrtriennale, Essen, Germany, 2013
The Swan: Replay in Polyester at Edinburgh International Festival, presented by Nam June Paik Art Center, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2013
Glatt und Verkehrt Festival, Krems, Austria, 2010 & 2013
Tuned City Festival, Brusses, Belgium, 2013
Norwegian Short Film Festival, Grimstadt, Norway, 2013
Schaffhauser Jazz Festival, Shaffhausen, Switzerland, 2013
Doek Festival, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2013
Ear We Are Festival, Biel, Switzerland, 2013
Rotterdam Film Festival, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2012 & 2013
Corruptive Climate Festival, Berlin, Germany, 2012
Lampo, Chicago, USA, 2012
Hagenfesten, Dala-Floda, Sweden, 2012
Bergen International Festival, Bergen, Norway, 2012
Nye Perspectives Festival, Västerås, Sweden, 2012
Maerzmusik Festival, Berlin, Germany, 2012
Sons d’Hiver Festival, Paris, France, 2012
All Ears Festival, Oslo, Norway, 2010 & 2012
Merce Cunningham Dance Company Final Performances, Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY, USA, 2011
Long White Shadows with Michelle Boulé, Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, NY, USA, 2011
Jazz em Agosto, Lisbon, Portugal, 2011
Eternal Turning, Nam-June Paik Center, Yong-In, Korea, 2011
Taktlos Festival, Zürich & Basel, Switzerland, 2004 & 2011
Densités à l’œuvre Festival, Fresnes-en-Wöevre, France, 2010
Melos-Étos Contemporary Music Festival, Bratislava, Solvakia, 2009
Kisaeng Becomes You, choreographed by Dean Moss & Yoon-Jin Kim with original music by Okkyung Lee, Dance Theater Workshop (currently New York Live Arts), New York, NY, USA, 2009
European and North American Tour with Laurie Anderson, 2008 & 2009
Then, There, That Corner, commissioned by New York Cultural Council, Roulette, New York, NY, USA, 2007
Untitled (White Night), The Kitchen, New York, NY, USA, 2007
Whitney Biennial: Day for Night, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA, 2006
Performa ’05, Eyebeam Gallery, New York, NY, USA, 2005
La Biennale di Venezia, with Butch Morris, Venice, Italy, 2003
Selected Awards, Grants and Residencies
DAAD Artist-in Berlin Program, 2025
Résidence d’Artiste, La Becque, Switzerland, 2023
The Instant Award in Improvised Music, Chicago, IL, USA, 2020
Pioneer Works Technology Residency, New York, NY 2019
Akademie Schloss Solitude Residency, Stuttgart, Germany, 2017
Harvestworks Artist in Residency, New York, NY, USA, 2016
Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, New York, NY, USA, 2015
Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, Umbria, Italy, 2015
Q-O2 Artist in Residency, Brussels, Belgium, 2014
Artist In Residence Krems, Krems An Der Donau, Austria, 2010
Foundation for Contemporary Arts Music/Sound Grant, 2010
New York State Council on the Arts, Composer Commissions Grant, 2007
Teaching and Mentorship
Workshops on improvisation, Music Space GF and o/p, Seoul, Korea, 2023-2024
Visiting Professor at Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG), Karlsruhe, Germany, 2021-2022
The Stone Lab for Master’s Degree candidates in Composer/Performer program, The New School, New York, NY, USA 2020
Forecast Forum, Mentor in filed of Music and Sounds, Berlin, Germany, 2019-2020
Artist in Residence at Mills College, Oakland, CA, USA 2019
Faculty at Banff Jazz and Creative Music Center, Banff, Canada, 2012, 2017 & 2018
Visiting Artist/Faculty at Bard College MFA Program, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, USA 2017-2019
Workshop on Improvisation, Mannes College New School of Music, New York, NY, USA, 2015
Workshop on Improvisation, Festival Météo, Mulhouse, France, 2015
Education
M.M. in Contemporary Improvisation, New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, MA, USA, 2000
B.M. in Film Scoring & Contemporary Music Writing and Production, Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA, USA, 1998
okkyung lee 