OKKYUNG LEE
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Okkyung Lee is a cellist, composer, and improviser who moves freely between of artistic fields. 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 the traditional and popular music of her homeland—and used them to forge a highly distinctive approach to her instrument and music making guided by her curiosity and a determined sense of exploration.
While 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 the architecture, audience, or objects surrounding her, challenging the built-in hierarchy in traditional concert settings.
She has appeared on more than 30 albums, including the acclaimed solo improvisation effort 'Ghil', produced for Ideologic Organ, collections of composition-driven pieces like 'Noisy Love Songs (for George Dyer)', released by Tzadik , her latest solo cello release '나를 (Na-Reul)' on Corbett vs Dempsey, 'Teum (The Silvery Slit)', written for GRM's Acousmonium and live cello, released on GRM Portraits/Editions Mego, and the critically acclaimed 'Yeo-Neun' on Shelter Press.
Over the last two decades Lee has collaborated with Laurie Anderson, David Behrman, Chris Corsano, Mark Fell, Douglas Gordon, Jenny Hval, Vijay Iyer, Ikue Mori, Bill Orcutt, Jim O’Rourke, Marina Rosenfeld, and John Zorn among others. In recent years she’s performed in equally varied contexts, whether embarking on an extended tour with the legendary experimental rock band Swans or collaborating with visual artists Haroon Mizra and Athur Jafa.
She has been commissioned to compose music and assemble projects for Amsterdam’s Maze Ensemble, Borealis Festival in Bergen, Norway, Nam June Paik Art Center, Korea and for the London Sinfonietta as part of a Christian Marclay exhibition at White Cube Gallery and presented her work at festivals and venues including Time Spans Festival, MoMA, Venice Biennale, Rewire, Unsound, MOFO MONA, Wiener Festwochen, and Donaueschinger Musiktage.
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