East Asian Music and Stories in the Contemporary US

Dr. Hippocrates Cheng is a composer, theorist, ethnomusicologist from Hong Kong. He is currently an assistant professor of music theory and composition and an affiliated faculty of Asian and Asian American Studies at Binghamton University. In 2024, he completed his Doctor of Music Composition with a minor in ethnomusicology at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

As a composer, he writes contemporary classical music, new music for Asian instruments, and Jazz. As a researcher, he researches the music of Hong Kong composer Doming Lam, East Asian and Southeast Asian music, piano rolls and player piano in early Jazz history and Braille music notation. He has given guest lectures, masterclasses and performances in the United States, Canada, Austria, Germany, China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

In 2024 June, his Anti-Asian Hate chamber opera: All of US was premiered as the winning work commissioned by the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel, Indiana. In the summer of 2025, he completed a two-month research residency in Vienna, awarded by the Arnold Schönberg Center, where he conducted in-depth research on Schönberg’s notational style.

Recently, with fellow colleagues, he founded a creative-research initiative East Asian Music in the Contemporary World (EAMCW) Initiative to promote new music for East Asian instruments and to provide a dynamic platform where performers, scholars, students, and community members can experience, reflect on, and engage in dialogue about East Asian music in contemporary contexts.

Malaysian composer Dr. Hong-Da Chin’s music has been performed by the Canadian Chinese Orchestra, New Thread Quartet, Marilyn Shrude, John Sampen, Toledo Symphony Orchestra, Khasma Piano Duo, No Exit New Music Ensemble, Bent Frequency, Ogni Suono Saxophone Duo, Patchwork, Newphonia Ensemble, among others. Besides composing, Chin plays the Chinese flutes and has performed at venues such as the Carnegie Hall (NYC), Alice Tully Hall (NYC), John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington D.C.), Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), Asia Society (NYC), Phillips Collection (Washington D.C.), Huntington Library (LA), Smithsonian Institution (Washington D.C.), Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park (Chicago), Art Institute of Chicago, Museum at Eldrige Street, DiMenna Center, Symphony Space, Silesian Theatre (Katowice, Poland) among others. Chin is associate professor of composition and music theory at Western Illinois University, a member of the ADJ•ective Composers’ Collective and the Society of Malaysian Contemporary Composers. Besides his musical activities, he is an avid badminton player.

Junghwa Lee is a gayageum performer and instructor dedicated to sharing the depth and versatility of Korean traditional music. She holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Korean Traditional Music from Hanyang University in Seoul. Lee is a guest artist and lecturer at UCLA and has presented lecture-recitals at the University of San Diego and Cuesta College. From 2018 to 2023, she served as a gayageum lecturer for the International Gugak Workshop hosted by the National Gugak Center in Seoul. She previously performed with the Gyeonggi Korean Music Orchestra and received first prize at both the Dong-A Traditional Korean Music Contest and the Korean National Traditional Music Competition. Her solo album, Soaring, reflects her expressive and refined artistry. While grounded in tradition, she actively pursues cross-cultural collaborations, bringing the gayageum to diverse genres and new artistic contexts.