Jihye Lee

Jihye Lee is a Korean-born, Brooklyn-based composer, arranger, and conductor who possesses a highly personal, entertaining, and idiosyncratic knack for musical storytelling. Since 2017, she has released three orchestral albums, making significant waves in the jazz and classical music scenes of New York and beyond.

Infinite Connections, Lee’s third orchestral album, released in 2024, was immediately selected as DownBeat Editor’s Pick of the Month for June and featured on several “Best Albums of 2025” lists, including The Nation, The Guardian, and JazzTimes. An emotionally arresting song-cycle of nine diverse compositions for an 18-piece orchestra, Infinite Connections stands as a powerful testament to Lee’s uncommon artistry. Lee’s sophomore album, Daring Mind (Motema, 2021), was inspired by her struggles and triumphs as an immigrant artist living in New York City. The New York Times remarked that “[she] has her own style” and Le Monde noted that “[her] music is a miracle of luxuriance and freshness.” It was also selected as one of 10 best jazz albums of 2021 by The Guardian. April, her debut album which she released independently in 2017,  was a response to the Sewol Ferry Disaster in South Korea in 2014. All About Jazz called that album “thought-provoking and gut-wrenching all at once.”

Lee’s work has garnered numerous accolades including sought-after commissions, honors, awards, and residencies, including the NYU/CBA National Sawdust Toulmin Fellowship, BMI Foundation’s Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize, the ASCAP Foundation/Symphonic Jazz Orchestra Commissioning Prize, and the Korean Music Award for Best Jazz Album of 2022 and 2025. Her work has also graced prestigious stages like Jazz at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall’s NYO Jazz, the National Theatre of Korea, the Brazil C6 Festival, the Frankfurt hr-Big Band, and more, all solidifying her reputation as a remarkable new trailblazer.