Hye Kyung Lee (South Korea/USA) is currently teaching at Denison University in Granville, Ohio. She received her doctoral degree in composition and a Performance Certificate in Piano Performance from the University of Texas at Austin in 1998. Her recent awards include the UnCaged Toy Piano Competition, Renee B. Fisher Composers Award, Athena Chamber Composition Competition, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra Composers Competition, and three awards (Nancy Van de Vate Prize for Orchestral Music, Search for New Music Prize, Piano Trio Composition Competition) from International Alliance for Women in Music among others. Her music can be found on Innova Recordings, Vienna Modern Mas- ters Recordings, Aurec Recordings, Capstone Recordings, Mark Custom Recordings, New Ariel Recordings, SEAMUS CD Series Vol.8, and Equilibrium recordings (for which she played the piano with saxophonist Todd Yukumoto).

The composition Qae-si-na-ching-ching for mixed choir and three tom-toms is based on five syllables: qae-si-na-ching-ching. It is the refrain from folk songs from the south-east region of Korea, where every one sings together in response to a lead soloist. It is not exactly known what the meaning is, but it is often interpreted as “bright moon”.