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. A recipient of ASCAP Morton Gould Award, Lee has held fellowships at the Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, and Copland House’s CULTIVATE program. In her upcoming season, she looks forward to her most recent orchestral work, In Crystallized Time, being performed by the American Composers Orchestra in New York City in June 2025.
Her recent collaborators include the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Buffalo Chamber Players, Front Porch, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, among others. She holds commissions from New World Symphony, Sound Mind, United States Air Force Heritage of America Band, the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America, and Michael Karsher’s Young New Yorkers’ Chorus.
Originally from Seoul, South Korea, Lee holds a B.M. from Indiana University, a M.M. from Rice University where she was a Brown Fellow, and is currently pursuing a D.M.A. in composition at the University of Michigan.
While at MacDowell, Lee began composing her orchestral work Tiger’s Pipe—a new commission for the Korean National Symphony Orchestra, scheduled to premiere in November 2025. The residency provided focused time to develop the work’s thematic material and structural framework, drawing on Korean folk elements and her ongoing interest in cross-cultural musical narratives.
