Okkyung Lee is a cellist, composer, and improviser who moves freely between artistic disciplines and contingencies. Since 2000 she has worked in disparate contexts as a solo artist and collaborator with creators in 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.

She has been commissioned to compose music and assemble projects for Time Spans Festival (New York, USA), Groupe de Recherches Musicales (Paris, France), Sonic Acts Festival (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Borealis Festival (Bergen, Norway), Donaueschingen 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), 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.

In 2010, Lee received a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant, and in 2015 a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. She has been awarded residencies at Civitella Ranieri in Umbria, Italy, in 2015 and the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany, in 2017.

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 the New England Conservatory of Music in 2000.