2015 Sejong Prize for Music Composition Competition
Winner and Honorable Mentions
| Winner | Su-eun Lee Weimar, Germany Ga-ul for flute & piano |
|---|---|
| Honorable Mention | Joungbum Lee Chicago, IL, USA between . . . for flute, clarinet, violin, cello & piano |
| Yuanyuan Kay He Austin, TX, USA Imprint of the Spring Breeze for piano trio |
Su-eun Lee graduated Young-nam University with a BA in composition. Then he studied Music Theory at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig. Currently Lee is studying toward a Master's degree in composition at the University of Music Weimar. In 2014 his opera Das neue Rottkeapche was premiered at Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Joungbum Lee is a composer of chamber, electronic, and orchestral music. He completed a Bachelor Degree in Composition from Eastman School of Music and Masters degree at Rice University. His main composition teachers have been Carlos Sanchez-Guitierrz, David Liptak, Ricardo Zohn Moolden, Robert Morris and Shih-Hui Chen,. He has also taken lessons with Chen Yi, David Ludwig, Vivian Fung, Roberto Sierra, Mario Dovidosky and Gunther Schuller. Joungbum's music has been performed nationally by the Rochester chamber music society, AMF new music ensemble, NWS new music ensemble and KNPO orchestra. He has been commissioned by individuals and groups such as Collin Stoke, Jason Shafer, Gloria Kim, Jarrita Ng and Seoul Art Festival Dimension, NWS new music ensemble, Musiqa modern ensemble and KNPO orchestra. Joungbum also received awards and recognitions such as Howard Hanson Merit Scholarship, Eastman School of Music (2006-2007), Belle S. Gitelman Award at the Eastman School of Music (2009), 1st prize in Rochester Chamber Music composition competition 2009, New York State regional winner of the annual SCI/ASCAP Composers Competition (2009), Bernard Rogers Memorial Prize, at the Eastman School of Music (2008), for Suffering, Journal of Music composition competition 2004, 1st prize, Brown scholarship (2012) at Rice University and 23rd IBLA Grand Prize 2014 certificate of recognition. Joungbum is also actively premiered his compositions at numerous music festival such as Hartwick Music Festival (2007), Bowdoin International Music Festival (2007), Atlantic Music Festival for contemporary music (2010). Recent and upcoming projects include Composer/Performer lab 2014-15 with pianist Amy Briggs. Joungbum is currently studying with Shulamit Ran and pursuing PhD degree in University of Chicago.
Yuanyuan (Kay) HE began learning piano at age 5. At age 15, she began studying composition at the affiliated middle school of Shenyang Conservatory of China. As a double major undergraduate, Kay He studied with Tang Jianping in composition at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing (CCOM), and with Zhang Xiaofu at the Conservatory's Center for Electroacoustic Music of China (CEMC). The winner of a Snow Scholarship, Kay He completed her Master's degree in composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). While at UMKC, she studied under Dr. Zhou Long, Dr. Chen Yi, Dr. Paul Rudy and Dr. James Mobberley. Besides music, she also learned to paint at the UMKC Department of Art and Fine Arts. She is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in composition (DMA) at the University of Texas at Austin, studying under Dr. Dan Welcher, Dr. Russell Pinkston, Dr. Donald Grantham, and Dr. Yevgeniy Sharlat.
As a young composer, Kay has won many composition awards in the U.S. and abroad. Her piece Passeig de Gràcia for orchestra was selected for the 2015 ACO Underwood New Music Readings in New York City. On the Threshold of a Drizzly Reality for cello and electronics was selected for 2014 performances at the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) in Athens, Greece and the Root Signals music festival in Jacksonville, Florida; her piano trio Shadow of Dewdrops was selected as a finalists for TICF2015 composition competition in Bangkok, Thailand and Gamma UT music festival in 2014; the orchestra piece Legends of Old Peking won the Seattle Symphony's Celebrate Asia Composition in 2012; Dying Away won the 2011 DuoSolo Emerging Composer Competition; Destiny of the Sputnik was chosen in the 2011 Beijing Modern Music Festival Young Composers Project, and many other pieces have won awards or competitions in other parts of the world.