Okkyung Lee is a cellist, composer, and improviser who moves freely between artistic disciples and contingencies. 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 her homeland’s traditional and popular music—and used them to forge a highly distinctive approach. While Okkyung is probably known best for her improvisational work utilising visceral extended techniques on her instrument, she has been creating various types of compositions and site-specific works, responding to its architecture, audience, or objects surrounding her, producing an immersive experience that also challenges the built-in hierarchy in traditional concert settings.

She has appeared on more than 30 albums, including her latest solo cello release “나를 (Na-Reul)” on Corbett vs Dempsey, “Teum (The Silvery Slit),” written for Acousmonium by GRM and live cello, released on GRM Portraits/Editions Mego, and critically acclaimed “Yeo-Neun” on Shelter Press.

She has appeared on more than 30 albums, including a diverse variety of recordings as a leader, from the acclaimed solo improvisation effort Ghil, for Ideologic Organ/Editions Mego, or composition-driven collections like Noisy Love Songs (for George Dyer), released by Tzadik in 2011. She has collaborated with artists including Christian Marclay, Arca, Mark Fell, Marina Rosenfeld, Vijay Iyer, Arthur Jafa, The Swans, and worked at festivals and venues including Time Spans Festival, MoMA, Venice Biennale, Rewire, Unsound, MOFO MONA, Wiener Festwochen, Borealis Festival, and Donaueschinger Musiktage. Currently Okkyung is a 2025 fellow of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin-Program.