MUSE • Musicians United for Social Equity

Biography

Yuna Lee is a composer, arranger, musical director, conductor, and pianist specializing in musical theatre, film, and concerts. Over her 16-year career in the music industry, she has established an artistic presence across the United States, Europe, and Asia. Currently based in New York City, Yuna is the Founder and Producer of the NOVA Music Collective, where she leads international cross-genre projects and produces the NOVA Theatre Series. This includes directing and producing high-profile concert series at premier New York venues such as The Green Room 42, 54 Below, and Don’t Tell Mama, featuring Off-Broadway and National Tour actors. She also founded and directs the Yuna & JP Faundez Jazz Orchestra, developing full-scale jazz orchestra concerts.

Yuna holds a Master of Music (M.M.) degree and a Professional Diploma from Berklee College of Music, focusing on Jazz Composition, Musical Theatre, and Film Scoring. She has received multiple awards, including the Berklee Quincy Jones Award, the Career Jam Award for Scoring, and the 46th DownBeat Music Awards for Original Composition (Jazz Large Ensemble “2:3”). She was also selected as a finalist for the 2023 BMI Foundation Pete Carpenter Fellowship.

In the United States, Yuna has worked extensively as a music director, arranger, and keyboardist for various concerts and musical theatre productions at local theaters. Her bicoastal credits include collaborations with Harvard Business School (MA) and Roxbury Community College (MA). In Los Angeles, she served as the Music Director and Arranger for Musical Dosan at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, supported by the California Arts Council and LA County Arts & Culture. Her global portfolio also features recording projects at Air Studios London and the Budapest Art Orchestra, as well as a collaboration titled Composition X with the Dallas Museum of Art (TX). In Korea, Yuna has been an integral part of official Korean Premiere productions of Broadway musicals. She has served as Music Director, Conductor, Associate/Assistant Music Director, and Keyboardist for prominent productions including In the Heights (Korean Premiere & Japan Tour), Disney’s Newsies (Korean Premiere), Next to Normal, Dracula, Billy Elliot, Carmen, Les Misérables (The French Musical Cast Concert Tour), and The Wedding Singer. Additionally, she was commissioned by the Government of South Korea as a Composer and Arranger for the 72nd National Liberation Day Celebrations, and she has served as an Adjunct Professor in the Musical Theatre Department at Seokyeong University in Seoul.

In the commercial and K-Pop music scenes, Yuna has collaborated as an arranger and session pianist with artists such as Brown Eyed Soul (K-Pop Top Charts) and Dani & Lovelyz Kei. She also worked as a session pianist for Luna (a K-pop artist and lead actor in the Broadway musical KPOP) and has contributed as a composer to online games.