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Described as ‘positively apocalyptic’ (Chicago Classical Review), ‘sounding like dense reefs of exotic corals’ (The Strad), and ‘alluring, sparkling, thoughtful, and carefully crafted’ (Augusta Read Thomas), Chicago based composer Dongryul Lee[1] crafts music that entwines the acoustical nature of sounds with clarity, pathos, and reinvented classical expressions. Drawing inspiration from Borgesian poetics and Jungian philosophy to number theory and artificial intelligence, he creates works ranging from research-driven solo and chamber to large-scale choral and orchestral works that interweave spirituality and environmental reflection, often reflecting the multiplicity of his identity: a Korean immigrant in the United States, a born Catholic and learned Buddhist thinker, and a composer with a computer science degree. His longtime fascination with bells—deepened through his research assistantship for the McFarland Carillon in Urbana—led him to doctoral research in engineering campanology, culminating in a series of bell-inspired pieces including Le Tombeau de Harvey (by Ariel Mo) and TimeStory (by the Grossman Ensemble.)
Lee’s music has been performed by distinguished ensembles such as the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra (Helsinki), the Berlin-based Kairos Quartet, Città di Udine's Taukay Ensemble, the Jupiter String Quartet, the Mivos Quartet, Chicago's Grossman Ensemble, New Earth Ensemble and Axiom Brass, his long time collaborator–Boston's Callithumpian Consort, GMCL in Lisbon, the New York-based S.E.M. Ensemble, Conference Ensemble at the Composers Conference, the Montréal-based Ensemble Paramirabo, Cello Loft, and Illinois Modern Ensemble, among others. Dongryul has collaborated with celebrated soloists including Miranda Cuckson, Ariel Mo, Benjamin Sung, David Kalhous, Chungho Lee (이충호), Li-chin Li, Eugenia Jeong, Matt Oliphant, Hannah Collins, Balázs Kálvin, Amber Evans, Eric Moore, Nicolee Kuester, Sungmin Shin, Laura Liu, Hanqian Zhu, Tomoko Ono, Brendan White, and Chukyung Park (박주경). He has also worked with conductors such as Vimbayi Kaziboni, James Baker, Jeffrey Means, Jerry Hou, Kirsten Hedegaard, and others across the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
“The virtuosic microtonal exercise A finite island in the infinite ocean (2020). Given the title, passages sound like dense reefs of exotic corals. […] In an appealing illusion, the violinist created a faint echo effect, as if subtly enlarging the space.”
He was awarded the Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship, which supported his study with Jukka Tiensuu (2020); Theodore Presser Foundation Award in Music (2019); the third prize in the first Bartók World Competition (Hungary, 2018)[2]; the Special Prize Piero Pezzé in the Composition Competition Città di Udine (Italy, 2018)[3]; Second Prize in the 3rd GMCL Competition (Portugal, 2017)[4]; and Second Prize in 2017 Busan Maru Competition (South Korea). Other recognitions include the Jupiter Quartet Guest Artist Award (2017) at the University of Illinois, a Cello Loft Commission, Second Place in the American Prize in Composition (Student Orchestra Division, 2015), Honorable Mention in the 11th Chengdu Sun River Prize (China, 2015), as well as multiple composition prizes from the Eastman School of Music, including two Bernard Rogers Memorial Prizes. His work was recognized by the 2020 BabelScores Reading Panel and is included in the BabelScores catalog.
Highlights of recent seasons include the premiere of Missa Laudato Si’, an hour-long choral-sinfonietta work inspired by Pope Francis’s encyclical on ecology. Commissioned by the EcoVoice Project, it was premiered at Loyola University Chicago in March 2025, conducted by Kirsten Hedegaard and featuring Chungho Lee as piano soloist. Other recent works include The Ci(r)cadian Tree, commissioned by Benjamin Sung and David Kalhous for their Extension Project, with premieres at Florida State University and in Chicago and Urbana; Le Tombeau de Harvey (2022) and the deep learning based On a Winter’s Night a Traveller (2024), both premiered at the New England Conservatory by pianist Ariel Mo, a long-standing collaborator; the bell-inspired TimeStory (2021), based on his dissertation A Thousand Carillons, and performed by the Grossman Ensemble at the Logan Center for the Arts in Chicago (2021), with its research also presented at the IRCAM Forum Workshop in Montréal (2021); and Unending Rose (2020), performed in Berlin by the Kairos Quartett with support from the Theodore Presser Foundation, Arts Council Korea, and Kultur Büro Elisabeth Berlin. His A finite island in the infinite ocean was premiered at the Fromm Players Concerts at Harvard by Miranda Cuckson.
From the resonance of bells to the logic of multiphysics, Lee’s music explores the boundary between sound and idea. He invites listeners into sonic worlds that are at once intellectually searching and emotionally resonant—works of rigor, imagination, and spirituality shaped by a deeply personal yet universal voice.
1. Korean: 이동렬 [iː doŋ ɾjəɾ]; pronouns: he/him.
2. Adjudicated by the jury: Thomas Adès (chair), Unsuk Chin, Chaya Czernowin, Gyula Fekete.
3. Adjudicated by the jury: Michele Biasutti (President), Edmund Campion, Juraj Ďuriš, Harald Muenz, Roberta Silvestrini
4. Adjudicated by the jury: Ivan Fedele (President), Gerhard Stabler, Clotilde Rosa, João Madureira, Pedro Figueiredo, Jaime Reis, and Jorge Sá Machado
5. At Zinopix (2002-04) and NCSoft (2004-06).
6. Before coming to the US in 2008, Lee studied music privately, piano with Yoon Jeong Kim (2003-2004), Ji Yun Lee (2006-2007); piano and music theory with Hee Yeon Chin (2004-2006); counterpoint and composition with Tae-hoon Kim (2006-2007); aural skills with Nam Hui Lee (2005), and attended music courses at Yonsei University–Tonal Harmony I (2000) and II (2007), Orchestration, 16th Century Counterpoint, Conducting Technique (all 2007), et al.
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“Positively apocalyptic. Quotations of the Dies Irae mingle with Buddhist chant to dispel any notion of a silver lining.”
– Landon Hegedus (Chicago Classical Review), On Missa Laudato Si’
Described as ‘positively apocalyptic’ (Chicago Classical Review), ‘sounding like dense reefs of exotic corals’ (The Strad), and ‘alluring, sparkling, thoughtful, and carefully crafted’ (Augusta Read Thomas), Chicago based composer Dongryul Lee[1] crafts music that entwines the acoustical nature of sounds with clarity, pathos, and reinvented classical expressions. Drawing inspiration from Borgesian poetics and Jungian philosophy to number theory and artificial intelligence, he creates works ranging from research-driven solo and chamber to large-scale choral and orchestral works that interweave spirituality and environmental reflection, often reflecting the multiplicity of his identity: a Korean immigrant in the United States, a born Catholic and learned Buddhist thinker, and a composer with a computer science degree. His longtime fascination with bells—deepened through his research assistantship for the McFarland Carillon in Urbana—led him to doctoral research in engineering campanology, culminating in a series of bell-inspired pieces including Le Tombeau de Harvey (by Ariel Mo) and TimeStory (by the Grossman Ensemble.)
“Dr. Dongryul Lee’s works are alluring, sparkling, thoughtful, and carefully crafted. Each work has a unique concept, which he researches deeply and personalizes.”
– Augusta Read Thomas (Director of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition)
Lee’s music has been performed by distinguished ensembles such as the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra (Helsinki), the Berlin-based Kairos Quartet, Città di Udine's Taukay Ensemble, the Jupiter String Quartet, the Mivos Quartet, Chicago's Grossman Ensemble, New Earth Ensemble and Axiom Brass, his long time collaborator–Boston's Callithumpian Consort, GMCL in Lisbon, the New York-based S.E.M. Ensemble, Conference Ensemble at the Composers Conference, the Montréal-based Ensemble Paramirabo, Cello Loft, and Illinois Modern Ensemble, among others. Dongryul has collaborated with celebrated soloists including Miranda Cuckson, Ariel Mo, Benjamin Sung, David Kalhous, Chungho Lee (이충호), Li-chin Li, Eugenia Jeong, Matt Oliphant, Hannah Collins, Balázs Kálvin, Amber Evans, Eric Moore, Nicolee Kuester, Sungmin Shin, Laura Liu, Hanqian Zhu, Tomoko Ono, Brendan White, and Chukyung Park (박주경). He has also worked with conductors such as Vimbayi Kaziboni, James Baker, Jeffrey Means, Jerry Hou, Kirsten Hedegaard, and others across the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
“The virtuosic microtonal exercise A finite island in the infinite ocean (2020). Given the title, passages sound like dense reefs of exotic corals. […] In an appealing illusion, the violinist created a faint echo effect, as if subtly enlarging the space.”
– THE STRAD (Bruce Hodges) on A finite island in the infinite ocean
He was awarded the Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship, which supported his study with Jukka Tiensuu (2020); Theodore Presser Foundation Award in Music (2019); the third prize in the first Bartók World Competition (Hungary, 2018)[2]; the Special Prize Piero Pezzé in the Composition Competition Città di Udine (Italy, 2018)[3]; Second Prize in the 3rd GMCL Competition (Portugal, 2017)[4]; and Second Prize in 2017 Busan Maru Competition (South Korea). Other recognitions include the Jupiter Quartet Guest Artist Award (2017) at the University of Illinois, a Cello Loft Commission, Second Place in the American Prize in Composition (Student Orchestra Division, 2015), Honorable Mention in the 11th Chengdu Sun River Prize (China, 2015), as well as multiple composition prizes from the Eastman School of Music, including two Bernard Rogers Memorial Prizes. His work was recognized by the 2020 BabelScores Reading Panel and is included in the BabelScores catalog.
“… including sections of the Pope’s letter, a list of endangered species, and a poem by the Korean Zen poet Shiva Ryu. Lee weaves these texts together to help people reflect on climate change.”
– Yale Climage Connections (Sarah Kennedy) on Missa Laudato Si’
Highlights of recent seasons include the premiere of Missa Laudato Si’, an hour-long choral-sinfonietta work inspired by Pope Francis’s encyclical on ecology. Commissioned by the EcoVoice Project, it was premiered at Loyola University Chicago in March 2025, conducted by Kirsten Hedegaard and featuring Chungho Lee as piano soloist. Other recent works include The Ci(r)cadian Tree, commissioned by Benjamin Sung and David Kalhous for their Extension Project, with premieres at Florida State University and in Chicago and Urbana; Le Tombeau de Harvey (2022) and the deep learning based On a Winter’s Night a Traveller (2024), both premiered at the New England Conservatory by pianist Ariel Mo, a long-standing collaborator; the bell-inspired TimeStory (2021), based on his dissertation A Thousand Carillons, and performed by the Grossman Ensemble at the Logan Center for the Arts in Chicago (2021), with its research also presented at the IRCAM Forum Workshop in Montréal (2021); and Unending Rose (2020), performed in Berlin by the Kairos Quartett with support from the Theodore Presser Foundation, Arts Council Korea, and Kultur Büro Elisabeth Berlin. His A finite island in the infinite ocean was premiered at the Fromm Players Concerts at Harvard by Miranda Cuckson.
“Lee is exploring a complex net of tunings that foreground unfamiliar kinds of consonances between notes of the solo violin. [...] but Lee raises the ante by allowing considerably more complex sonic relationships to emerge. The result is a piece which sounds entirely fresh yet somehow natural in its unfolding.”
– Robert Hasegawa, editor of The Oxford Handbook of Orchestration Studies, On A finite island in the infinite ocean
A dedicated teacher as well as composer, Lee is Assistant Professor of Music at Loyola University Chicago, where he coordinates Theory and Composition. He has also taught at the University of Chicago, North Central College, Harper College, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he earned his MM and DMA degrees. Lee was the 2020–21 CCCC Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Chicago’s Center for Contemporary Composition.
He first earned a BS in computer science and industrial systems engineering from Yonsei University and worked as a software engineer[5] before turning to music full-time. During this period, he studied music and practiced piano privately for five years in preparation for formal study[6], later earning his BM in composition at the Eastman School of Music. He has studied composition with Jukka Tiensuu, Heinrich Taube, Reynold Tharp, Stephen Andrew Taylor, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Erin Gee, Taehoon Kim, and others; conducting with Brad Lubman and Mark Davis Scatterday; and piano with Tony Caramia, Ji Yun Lee, and Yoon Jeong Kim. He has also participated in composition residencies with Chaya Czernowin, Jennifer Higdon, Julian Anderson, Mario Davidovsky, and Joshua Fineberg.
“Liquid, sculptural, expansive, resplendent;
a playing/listening experience that feels like peeling back the layers of the piano to find new resonances,
release some ancient voice that's always been part of it but new to our ears."
– Arie Mo, pianist, on Le Tombeau de Harvey
From the resonance of bells to the logic of multiphysics, Lee’s music explores the boundary between sound and idea. He invites listeners into sonic worlds that are at once intellectually searching and emotionally resonant—works of rigor, imagination, and spirituality shaped by a deeply personal yet universal voice.
2. Adjudicated by the jury: Thomas Adès (chair), Unsuk Chin, Chaya Czernowin, Gyula Fekete.
3. Adjudicated by the jury: Michele Biasutti (President), Edmund Campion, Juraj Ďuriš, Harald Muenz, Roberta Silvestrini
4. Adjudicated by the jury: Ivan Fedele (President), Gerhard Stabler, Clotilde Rosa, João Madureira, Pedro Figueiredo, Jaime Reis, and Jorge Sá Machado
5. At Zinopix (2002-04) and NCSoft (2004-06).
6. Before coming to the US in 2008, Lee studied music privately, piano with Yoon Jeong Kim (2003-2004), Ji Yun Lee (2006-2007); piano and music theory with Hee Yeon Chin (2004-2006); counterpoint and composition with Tae-hoon Kim (2006-2007); aural skills with Nam Hui Lee (2005), and attended music courses at Yonsei University–Tonal Harmony I (2000) and II (2007), Orchestration, 16th Century Counterpoint, Conducting Technique (all 2007), et al.
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