JungAh Lee (b. 2001) is a Korean composer living in Seoul.
In 2025, Lee was selected for grants by both Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture (SFAC) and Arts Council Korea (ARKO), and with support from ARKO presented a portrait concert ‘sense-stimulus.’ A finalist in the 2024 CMSS Young Composers Competition and honorable mention recipient in the 2024 ISB David Walter Composition Competition, she has participated as a composition fellow at the highSCORE Festival, New Music on the Point, Darmstädter Ferienkurse, TIMF Academy, and IRCAM Forum Workshops Hors les Murs in Seoul.
Her music has been performed internationally in Austria, Germany, Italy, Korea, and the United States by Ensemble Modern, Ensemble TIMF, mdi Ensemble, Chris Otto, Szymon Marciniak, mdw contemporary music ensemble, and METALISM, among others. Major works include mini-opera Ant Stopped, awakening for violin and electroacoustic sound, and string quartet Line of Sight. Across creative boundaries, she has been involved in numerous theater and interdisciplinary performance productions, including Project Yonggung: Mystery of Paradise, Vampire in a Box, and Accanto Sinawi, in roles spanning composer, director, and assistant. In parallel, she recontextualizes Korean traditional music’s gestures and instrumental characters within her musical language, featuring concerts with Gugak performers at Mokpo National University, Seoul National University, Mullae Art Space, and Yeongdeungpo Art Hall.
Lee holds a B.M. (’23, summa cum laude) and M.M (’25) in composition from Seoul National University, where she studied with Shinuh Lee and Uzong Choe and was a GSI fellow. She received her master’s degree with the thesis “Flexibility of Rhythm in Contemporary Music after 1950: Notational Consequences of Aesthetic Choices.” Lee will continue her studies at the University of Chicago this fall for a Ph.D. in Composition and Sound Practices as a recipient of a Division of the Arts & Humanities Fellowship.
Short Bio (113 words)
JungAh Lee is a composer of contemporary music, working across acoustic, electroacoustic, and operatic compositions. In 2025, she was selected for grants by Arts Council Korea and presented her portrait concert ‘sense-stimulus.’ Her music has been performed internationally in Austria, Germany, Italy, Korea, and the United States by Ensemble Modern, Ensemble TIMF, mdi Ensemble, and Chris Otto, among others. Major works include mini-opera Ant Stopped, awakening for violin and electroacoustic sound, and string quartet Line of Sight. She has been involved in several theater productions and is interested in recontextualizing Korean traditional music within her own musical language. Lee holds a B.M. (summa cum laude) and M.M. in composition from Seoul National University.
jungah lee 