Ji Yeon Lee

Assistant Professor of Music Theory

Ji Yeon Lee is assistant professor of music theory at the University of Houston, Moores School of Music. She received her Ph.D. from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (2018), and master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Seoul National University. She also studied at the University of Munich under the auspices of German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Her primary research area is analysis of opera from the Romantic to present era, with an emphasis on German and Italian repertoire, climax and highpoint, musical gesture, and Asian composers. She has presented papers on the operas by Wagner, Verdi, and verismo composers, and the works by Korean composers Unsuk Chin and Isang Yun at the regional, national, and international conferences. Her publications include “Rotational Principle as Teleological Genesis in the “Annunciation of Death” Scene from Wagner’s Die Walküre (Music Theory Online), “Climax Building in Verismo Opera” (Music Theory Online), “Critical Survey of Musical Dynamism from Bel Canto to Verismo Opera” (The Opera Journal), “Decoding the Riddle: The Tea-party Scene in Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland” (The Routledge Handbook of Women’s Work in Music), and “Analyzing Verismo Opera: ‘Vissi d’arte’ from Puccini’s Tosca, Act 2” (Modeling Musical Analysis, Oxford University Press, forthcoming).” She is currently working on a book project on climaxes in verismo opera. As a teacher, she is interested in the development and propagation of inclusive pedagogy for diverse student bodies and international students. Before joining the University of Houston, she taught at the City University of New York’s Hunter College, City College, and York College.