A native of Korea, Okkyung Lee has been developing her own voice in a contemporary cello performance, improvisation and composition. Using her solid classical training as a springboard, she incorporates jazz, sounds, korean traditional music, and noise with extended techniques to create her unique blend of music.
Since 2000, she has performed and recorded with numerous artists such as Laurie Anderson, Carla Bozulich, John Butcher, Nels Cline, Chris Corsano, Axel Dörner, Carlos Giffoni, Vijay Iyer, Urs Leimgruber, Thurston Moore, Ikue Mori, Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris, Evan Parker, Wadada Leo Smith, Tyshawn Sorey, C Spencer Yeh and John Zorn to name a few.
Okkyung has released the following albums: Nihm and Noisy Love Songs (For George Dyer) on Tzadik; ; trio with Evan Parker and Peter Evans The Bleeding Edge on Psi; duo LP Anicca with Phil Minton on Dancing Wayang; a duo recording with Christian Marclay, Rubbings on My Cat is an Alien (LP)/A Silnet place (CD); solo cello album I saw the Ghost of an Unknown Soul and it Said… on Ecstatic Peace!; Check for Monsters with Steve Beresford and Peter Evans on Emanem label. Also she has recorded a duo with John Edwards titled White Cable, Black Wires on Fakata and Paul Lytton due to come out in 2013.
She has received a composer commission from New York State Council on the Arts in 2007 and Foundation for Contemporary Arts grant in 2010. |
