Sangwon Lee is a composer, sound artist, and educator whose work explores the intersections of acoustic and electronic media. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition and Theory with a cognate in Sound Design from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, and a Master of Music in Composition from the New England Conservatory in Boston. His primary composition teachers were Sukhi Kang and Robert Cogan, and he studied electroacoustic music with Scott Alan Wyatt.

Lee’s work has been recognized through numerous international competitions, festivals, and conferences, and his music has been broadcast across multiple continents. Born in South Korea, he served on the faculty of Pusan National University from 2019 to 2025, where he taught Electronic Music, Computer Music, and Composition.

 

Artistic Statement
My music is not a vehicle for external narratives or philosophical ideas; it emerges from an exploration of the autonomy of sound itself. I do not believe that music must “say” something. Music is already complete—its meaning lies in the pure auditory experience shaped by timbre, density, texture, and the flow of time.

For me, composition is not an act of expression but a process of creating the sounds I want to hear. I do not begin with external conceptual systems—literature, philosophy, science, mathematics—nor with a predetermined structural plan. Instead, I rely on inner hearing and intuition, confronting only myself and the sound. My process moves from moment to moment, from one sound to the next, following the sonic impulse I feel in the present.

My experience in Electroacoustic Music, Sound Design, and Computer Music allows me to approach sound as both objective material and sculptural substance. I explore the inherent drama within sound itself: subtle shifts in color, variations in timbre, and the rise and decay of energy. This is not “development” toward a fixed goal, but an extension that unfolds the possibilities inherent in sound. What fascinates me is this drama of sound itself—one that requires no explanation.

For this reason, my music is not something to be “read,” but something to be heard and experienced. It presupposes no message, symbol, or imposed meaning. What I pursue is not interpretation but experience, not explanation but sensation, not an external story but pure auditory truth. The listener stands completely free before my music, constructing meaning in their own way. That freedom—of listening, experiencing, and interpreting—is at the core of my compositional attitude.