Mingyeong Son

Mingyeong Son, Ph.D.

I currently reside in Boston and I have been co-affiliated with the Asian Music Research Institute of Seoul National University as a Research Professor since July 2023. Previously affiliated with Northeastern University as a Postdoctoral Researcher in 2024.

I was a Fulbright Scholar and worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at Harvard University Department of Music in the academic year 2022-2023.

Primary Research Fields: 20th Century Contemporary Music History and Aesthetics; Postcolonial and Cold War East Asian Music Studies; Korean Diaspora Woman in Music; Operas of North and South Korea, Global K-pop, Digital Technology, and Sound Studies

Contact Information:

Email: mkson711 [at]. gmail.com

Curriculum Vitae: CV

Education

July 2022 - July 2023 Postdoctoral Fellow Harvard University, Department of Music, Cambridge, MA.

Mar 2018 – Aug 2021 Ph. D. Musicology Seoul National University, College of Music (Korea) Department of Musicology and Music Theory

June 2016 - Sep 2015 Master of Music Northwestern University, Bienen School of Music, Department of Musicology, Evanston, IL.

Feb 2015 – Mar 2010 Bachelor of Music Seoul National University, College of Music (Korea) Department of Composition and Music Theory (Minor: Business Administration)

Publications

[Book]

Beyond Cultural Boundaries: 21st Century Western Composers’ Korean Traditional Music, Seoul National University Press (Jan 2024)
“What is Musical Creativity? : Aesthetic Discourses on Musical Creation from Plato to AI ,” co-edited by Prof. Hee Sook Oh and Dr. Mingyeong Son, (Seoul: Monopoly Press), April. 2025.
“Chapter VII Creating New Korea Music on the Global Stage with Western Composers’ Perspectives,” Korean Musicology Series 11 Contemporary Gugak, (Seoul: National Gugak Center), 2024.

[Journal Articles]

"Negating Nationalist Frameworks: Aesthetics of Unsuk Chin’s Musical Individualism in Twenty- First-Century East Asian Composition," The Journal of Asian Music 53, no.1 (Jan. 2022): 127-152.
“Reflections on Challenges of Musical Representation of Korean Historical Texts in Cord Meijering’s Marsyas for Percussion Solo Symphony (2018/19),” Music & Politics 18, 2024
“Aesthetics of Deterritorialization: New York-based Korean Gayageum Player DoYeon Kim's Existence (2023), Ewha Music Research Institute vol. 29 no. 1. (April. 2025): 91-125.
“Cultural Translation: A Study on Korean Traditional Instrumentalists’ Western Composition,” Music and Reality 69, (April 2025): 80-136.
“A Study on the Korean Symphony Movement by Maestro John S. Kim: With a Focus on Korea-US Exchanges in the Mid-20th Century,” Journal of Music and Theory, vol. 41 (Dec. 2023): 11-49.
"Collaborative Music of Korean Traditional Instrumentalist in American Contemporary Music: With a Focus on Gamin-Ned Rothenberg and Do Yeon Kim-Chase Morrin,” Ewha Music Research Institute vol. 27 no. 4. (Dec. 2023): 165-209.
“Postcolonial Discourse in 21st Century Music with a Focus on Daniel Moser’s Salpuri (2017),” Journal of Music and Theory, vol. 40 (Jun. 2023): 39-66.
“The Cultural Appropriation of Korean Woman in Postmodern America: John Zorn’s Hwang Chin-Ee for Two Drummers and a Female Soprano (1997),” The Journal of Korean National Research Center for the Arts 38 no. 4 (Dec. 2022): 124-150
“A Comparative Study of Korean and Western Art Music Using Korean Historical Text,” Music Research Center, vol. 48 (Oct. 2022): 95-137.
“Western Composers’ Encounter with Korean Traditional Music: Focusing on the Musical Representation of Korean Poetry,” Western Music Research Center, vol. 38 (Jun. 2022): 103-144.
“A Review on Listening to Music with Virtual Reality: Focusing on Los Angeles Philharmonic’s VR Project (2015),” Music Research Center, vol. 47 (Apr. 2022): 381-412.
“A Study on Unsuk Chin’s Double Concerto with the Strategy of Homogenization,” The Musicological Society of Korea 24-1, (51), (May 2021), pp. 147-181.

Working Papers

“Denationalizing Musical Instruments: The Case Studies from the Works of Unsuk Chin and Jin Hi Kim,” Accepted in the Journal of Musicological Research, (forthcoming, Spring 2026).
“The Idea of Motherhood in the North Korean Minjok Gageuk Chunhyangjeon: The Gendered Role of Wolmae," coauthored with Chung Im Chun, Accepted in the Asian Theatre Journal (forthcoming, Spring 2026).
“Two Is Better Than One: The Dynamics of Music-Making in American-Korean Collaborations,” In Contemporary Korean Music in Context, edited by Anna Yates-Lu and Hee Sook Oh (forthcoming, March 2026)
[Fulbright Research Theme] "A Study of the Cultural Identity of American Contemporary Music in the Global Era: With a Focus on Cultural Dialogue with Korean Traditional Artists"

Presentations

[Keynote Speech]

March 2025 “Paradigmatic Shifts: Reframing Western music globalism from the perspective of Asian Composers,” a festival-conference at the University of Alberta, Canada, March 19-22, 2025.

[Conference Presentations]

July. 2026 “Digital Rituals: Technological Transformations of Asian Zithers in Asian American Electroacoustic Art,” The 20th Anniversary and the 9th Symposium of the ICTMD Study Group on Musics of East Asia, Taipei, Taiwan, July 2–5, 2026. [Expected]
Jan. 2026 "From Performer to Composer: Cultural Translation in the Intercultural Works of Gugak Artists,”

Composition in Asia Symposium and Festival no. 5, University of South Florida in Tampa, Jan 29-Feb. 1, 2026. [Expected]

Nov. 2025 “A Study on the Korean Symphony Movement by Maestro John S. Kim: With a Focus on Korea-US Exchanges in the Mid-20th Century,” 18th Kyujanggak International Symposium, November 6-8, 2025.
Oct. 2025 "Notating the Unwritten: Performer-Composers’ Music-Making in Contemporary Gugak," Analytical Approaches World Music: Music Theories, Histories, Analysis, and the Musical Cultures of Asia, Cornell University, October 11-14.
Jun. 2025 "Classics in K-pop: The Dramatic Impact of Bach and Buxtehude in BTS's Blood, Sweat, and Tears (2016),” K-popology: new perspectives on production, dissemination and reception, Uppsala Universitet, Sweden, June 10, 2025.
Nov 2024 “The Aesthetics of Deterritorialization: Transforming Traditional Music by Korean Diasporic Artists in the 21st Century America,” 2024 AMS Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL. 14-17 November 2024.
Oct 2024 “Rhizomatic Collaborative Music-Making and Diasporic Creativity by Korean Artists, SEM Annual Meeting, Virtual Oct. 19, 2024.
Sep 2024 “Aesthetics of Deterritorialization: Interdisciplinary Creativity and Collaborative Music by Korean Gayageum Virtuoso DoYeon Kim,” the 13th Biennial International Conference on Music Since 1900 at KU Leuven, Belgium, Sep 13-15, 2024
June 2024 “Decolonial Aesthetics: German Composers’ Collaboration with Korean Music on the 21st Century Global Stage,” Asian-German Studies in Music Working Group Seminar (online), June 24-26, 2024.
Nov 2023 “Decentralized Duets: The Dynamics of Music-Making in American-Korean Collaborations,” 2023 AMS-SMT Joint Annual Meeting, Denver, CO. 9-12 November 2023.
Oct 2023 “Reflexive Globalism in American Composers’ Incorporation of Korean Musical Elements in Contemporary Music,” International Musicology Society East Asia, University of Tainan, Taiwan, Oct. 23-24. 2023.
June 2023 "Breaking the Boundaries: Intercultural Music-Making of Korean Diasporic Composers Jin Hi Kim and Texu Kim,” Transpacific East Asia: Transformations and Trajectories in Music and Sound, University of Sheffield, Jun. 2023.
May 2023 “Denationalizing Musical Instruments: Case Studies from the Works of Unsuk Chin and Jin Hi Kim,” Instruments, Interfaces, Infrastructures: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Musical Media,” Harvard University, May 11-13, 2023.
Aug 2022 [Round Table] “Cultural Questions and Instrumental Answers” in The Conference of International Musicological Society, University of Athens, Aug 22-26, 2022.

Aug 2022 [Free Paper Presentation] “A Western Composer’s Historic-Political Representation of Korea, With a Focus on Cord Meijering’s Marsyas for percussion Solo Symphony” in The Conference of International Musicological Society, University of Athens, Aug 22-26, 2022.

May. 2022 “Aesthetics of Postcolonialism Reflected on Western Composers’ Use of Korean Traditional Music,” Korean Aesthetics Society, May 7, 2022.

Jan. 2022. “A Comparative Study of Korean and Western Art Music Using Korean Historical Text,” SNU kyujanggak Korean Research Center, Jan 20, 2022.
Dec. 2021 [Zoom Presentation] “Cultural Dialogues: Western Composers Encounter with Korean Traditional Instruments,” the Global Exchange Project of “East by West,” SNU MUSIC, Dec. 17, 2021.

Nov. 2021 [Online Presentation] “Aesthetics of Rhizome: Between Coexistence and Contrast!,” 2021 KOCOA Music Festival”, analyzing five Korean contemporary composers’ works with aesthetic perspective, Korean Composers Association, Nov. 24. 2021.

Nov. 2020 [Online Presentation] “A Study on Unsuk Chin’s Double Concerto and Her Compositional Strategy in the view of Homogenization” The Musicological Society of Korea, Nov. 21. 2020.

Jan. 2020 “Locating Korean Musical Instruments in Western Arts Music: Focused on Historical Contexts and Criticism Since 20th century,” SNU Orient Express, Jan 20. 2020.

Nov. 2019 [Round Table] “What if Adorno’s Radio Symphony meets Youtube?” in The Conference of Music and Society, The Musicological Society of Korea 21-1

Jul. 2019 [Presenter and Moderator] How does Unsuk Chin Defy Her Identity as a Korean or German Composer? Focus on the Case of Unsuk Chin's Double Concerto (2002), International Contemporary of Aesthetic, University of Belgrade, Serbia, July 22-26, 2019.

June 2018 “Negating Nationalistic Framework: Unsuk Chin’s searching for her individual Sound in Opera Alice in Wonderland (2007)”, East Asian Research Seminar, Chinese University of Hong Kong, June 16-18, 2018.
Mar 2016 Conference presentations: “2010 Korean Production of Alban Berg’s Opera, “Lulu,” University of Chicago, Midwest Graduate Music Consortium, March, 4-5 2016,

Teaching

2026 Composer Seminar: "[Part 2] Korean Music: Focusing on Pansori and Arirang," Longy School of Music, Bard College,

Jan. 23

2025 Composer Seminar: "Korean Art Music History and Its Global Reception," Longy School of Music, Bard College, Sep. 26.
2025 Lecture Performance: “Feel the Rhythm of Korea: From Tradition to K-Pop” – Malden, MA, USA, August 9, 2025
2024 Special Lecture: “Exploring Classical Music: Emotions and Power in Beethoven’s Music,” MIT Westgate Lounge, USA
2023 Lunch Talk Seminar: “From Tradition to Innovation: A Study of Female Korean Composers' Use of Traditional Instruments in Contemporary Music, with a Focus on Unsuk Chin and Jin Hi Kim,” Department of Music, Harvard University, April 21, 2023.
2023 Lunch Talk Seminar: “Listening to ‘the Silent Other’: Intercultural Melodies in the Memories of Korean Contemporary Composers Unsuk Chin, Tai-bong Chung, and Texu Kim,” Department of Music, Harvard University, Jan. 2023.
2022 Special Seminar of Society for Music Aesthetics: “Reflections on Challenges of Musical Representations of Korean Historical Texts in Cord Meijering’s Marsyas for Percussion Solo Symphony (2018/19),” Society for Music Aesthetics, Jan 8, 2022.
2021 Special Lecture of Doctoral Dissertation: “Western Composers’ Encounter with Korean Traditional Music,” SNU College of Music, Nov. 9, 2021
2020 Special Lecture: Edward Said’s Orientalism and His Music Critics, Music Criticism (Prof. U. Choi, H. Oh) , SNU College of Music, Oct. 7, 2020.
2018- 2019 Teaching Assistant: Western Music History I- IV, Methodology of Music Research, Introduction Western Classical Music, Western Contemporary Music Seminar, College of Music in Seoul National University
2016 -2017 Music faculty teaching piano and music theory in British International School of Chicago, South Loop, Evanston, IL, USA.

Awards

2024 Excellent Academic Book Award, Beyond Cultural Boundaries: 21st Century Western Composers’ Korean Traditional Music, from the National Academy of Sciences of Korea, 2024.
2024 Northwestern University John Cage Research Grant Award, titled “Reconsidering Cagean Orientalism: Decolonizing in John Cage's Reception of Asia,” 2024-2025.
2020 Excellence in New Musicologist’s Outstanding Article Award, The Musicological Society of Korea, Nov. 2020

(last updated January 24, 2026)

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