Boston Conservatory at Berklee Faculty Member Receives Guggenheim Fellowship

Eun Young Lee was recognized for her distinguished work as a composer.

April 7, 2023

Eun Young Lee, a Boston Conservatory at Berklee associate professor of composition since 2014, has been named one of 171 recipients of the 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship. This year's fellowship recipients include a diverse group of writers, scholars, artists, and scientists representing 48 scholarly disciplines and artistic fields, 72 different academic institutions, and 24 states and Washington, D.C., as well as two Canadian provinces.

Lee's works have been commissioned by various ensembles, including Eighth Blackbird, Antico Moderno, the New York New Music Ensemble, Pacifica Quartet, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Diablo Symphony, Dinosaur Annex, Gemini Ensemble, ECCE, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, dissonArt ensemble, ensemble mise-en, Black House New Operas Project, Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble, and Radius Ensemble.

Her music has received a number of awards, including first prize at the Tsang-Houei Hsu International Music Composition Competition in Taiwan in 2006; the Max DiJulio Prize in 2008; placement in the League of Composers Competition and the Association for the Promotion of New Music (APNM) Composition Competition in 2013; and the first regional award in the American Society of University Composers/Society of Composers, Inc (SCI/ASCAP) student composition commission in 2006, 2009, and 2010, respectively. She has been the recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and the IPark's Composers + Musicians Collaborative Residency (in collaboration with the ensemble mise-en).

“I am honored and grateful to be named one of the 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship recipients,” said Lee. “My sincere appreciation goes to my family, mentors, friends, and colleagues, who have been supporting me so much. I am excited to work with amazing performers, Adrian Morejon and Momenta Quartet, on a project that is close to my heart.”

For almost 100 years, the Guggenheim Fellowship program has been a significant source of support for artists and scholars in the humanities, social sciences, and scientific research. Since its establishment in 1925, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has granted nearly $400 million in fellowships to more than 18,000 individuals, including Nobel laureates, winners of the Pulitzer Prize, Fields Medalists, poets laureate, members of the national academies, and more. Noted recipients include authors Zora Neale Hurston and James Baldwin, dancer and choreographer Martha Graham, and photographer Robert Frank. Boston Conservatory at Berklee and Berklee College of Music composition faculty member Marti Epstein received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2020.