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 and pop music, noise with extended techniques and create her unique blend of music.
she has performed and recorded with numerous artists such as laurie anderson, lotte anker, derek bailey, john butcher, carla bozulich, nels cline, chris corsano, fred frith, carlos giffoni, vijay iyer, lindha kallerdahl, andrew lampert, min xiao-fen, thurston moore, ikue mori, lawrence D. "butch" morris, jim o'rourke, evan parker, marina rosenfeld, keith rowe, wadada leo smith, c spencer yeh and john zorn to name a few.
okkyung has released the following albums: Nihm on Tzadik; a duo recording with christian marclay Rubbings on My Cat is an Alien/a Silent Place; a solo cello album I saw the Ghost of an Unknown Soul and it Said. on Ecstatic Peace!; a trio album with steve beresford and peter evans, Check for Monsters on Emanem. currently she is working on her follow up album for Tzadik, limited LP of duo with phil minton for Dancing Wayang, another duo with adam linson for Psi. in may, she'll also be recording a trio album with evan parker and peter evans and a duo with paul lytton.
she has received a composer commission from New York State Council on the Arts in 2007 and Foundation for Contemporary Arts grant in 2010.
