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Sunghee Lee is a haegeum artist who creates new work rooted in Korean traditional music. Through performance, collaboration, and interdisciplinary projects, she explores the expressive possibilities of the haegeum and the ways sound can create shared experiences across different cultural and artistic contexts.
A central concept in Lee’s work is pan, a shared space formed through interaction, presence, and collective participation. This idea shapes her approach to performance, where sound is not simply presented to an audience but created and experienced through relationships among performers, listeners, bodies, and space. Her recent work incorporates voice, gesture, and embodied musical knowledge into her haegeum practice.
Since relocating to the United States, Lee has expanded her work through concerts, interdisciplinary collaborations, university workshops, and community-based projects. She has performed at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage and worked with artists and educational institutions across Georgia and beyond. Her current projects explore how the haegeum can interact with new places, sounds, and communities outside conventional concert settings.
Lee holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Seoul National University, where she specialized in haegeum performance and Korean traditional music. She has served as an Associate Professor at Yeungnam University in South Korea since 2019 and is currently based in Georgia, USA, where she continues her work as a haegeum artist, researcher, and educator.
Performances, Workshops, Lectures in the U.S.
Performances, Workshops, Lectures in the U.S.
Featured Performer - Chunhyang Project, presented by KPAC (Korean Performing Arts Institute of Chicago), Chicago, IL, USA (2026)
Lecture-concert - St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN, USA (2026)
Faculty Performance & Guest Presentation - Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville, AL, USA (2026)
Guest Lecture – Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA, USA (2026)
Featured Performer – National Folk Festival, presented by National Folk Festival, Jackson, MS, USA (2025)
Featured Performer - Millennium Stage, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, presented by The John F. Kennedy Center; in collaboration with Threaded Resonance (interdisciplinary performance context), Washington, DC, USA (2026)
SEM Conference _ SEM Orchestra _Performing workshop
Atlanta, GA — Oct 23-27, 2025
Georgia Tech 추석행사 _Performing workshop
Georgia Tech, GA — Oct 09, 2025
Kennesaw State University 추석 행사 _ Performing workshop
Kennesaw State University, GA — Oct 07, 2025
Korean Festival_Haegeum Project _ Performing & Producing
Atlanata Korean Festival, Sugaloaf Mill, GA — Oct 04-05, 2025
K-Classic Concert “Thank You America!” (80th Anniversary of Liberation) _Soloist
Gas South Theater, Atlanta, GA — August 15, 2025
A Path Carved by the Wind (Chicago KPAC Annual Concert) _Featured Performer
Christian Heritage Academy, Northfield, IL — June 27, 2025
Strings Attached Across the Pacific: World Premiere of “Calling of the Whales” _Featured Performer
AT&T Performing Arts Center, Dallas, TX — May 10–11, 2025
Chinese Music Ensemble Spring Concert _Solois
Hodgson Concert Hall, University of Georgia Performing Arts Center, Athens, GA — April 7, 2025
Beautiful Sound of Korea(Atlanta KCC Annual Concert) _Featured Performer
Clary Theater, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA — February 11, 2024
Wooden Fish Ensemble Annual Concert 2020
Old First Concerts, San Francisco, CA — February 9, 2020
Wooden Fish Ensemble
Campbell Recital Hall, Stanford University, Stanford, CA — February 8, 2020
Haegeum Recital by Sunghee Lee
Campbell Recital Hall, Stanford University, Stanford, CA — February 7, 2020
Premiere of All the Noises in the World (composer Hyo-shin Na), haegeum soloist with JeongGaAkHoe
Old First Concerts, San Francisco, CA — May 19, 2006
Haegeum
The haegeum is a traditional Korean two-stringed fiddle. It produces sound by rubbing a bow made of horsehair between two twisted silk strings, which are stretched over a small resonator crafted from bamboo root. The name Haegeum is recorded to have originated from the Hae tribe, who lived near the border region between present-day Mongolia and China and were known for playing a similar bowed instrument. The haegeum was introduced to Korea from the Song dynasty during the Goryeo dynasty(1114 ) period and was subsequently adapted and refined to suit Korean musical aesthetics.
In playing the instrument, the right hand makes a friction between the bow and the string while the left hand covers and grabs the two strings at once or release from them to tune in the height of a note. The sound is made only by the performer's musical sense without any other supplementary device. The jewel of playing Haegeum is to make charming sounds by using 'Yeokanbeop' a technique whereby the two strings are grabbed and pressed together, or release and shaken. This is different from 'Eolhu' of China, a similar instrument with Haegeum as a rubbed string with which musical notes are plucked with fingertips under the technique called 'Gyeonganbeop.'
Haegeum is the only musical instrument fully equipped with traditional eight materials - 金 (gold), 石 (stone), 絲 (silk), 竹 (bamboo), 匏 (gourd), 土 (soil), 革 (leather), and 木 (wood).
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