Oh, Hee Sook

Hee-Sook Oh graduated from the Department of Piano at Ewha Womans University

and earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in musicology from the University of Freiburg in Germany.

She is currently a professor in the Department of Musicology at Seoul National University,

specializing in music aesthetics and contemporary music.

She has served as president of both the Korean-German Music Society and the Korean Society for Western Music,

and is currently the director of the Korean Society for Music Aesthetics.

She has authored numerous books on contemporary music and music aesthetics,

including Quoted Music as Cultural Symbol (2022), The Moment Music Stops, Real Music Begins (2021),

Contemporary Korean Music in the Perspective of Interculturality (2020),

and A History of Contemporary Korean Music through Composition (2019).

She has also expanded the field of musicology through collaborative research and edited volumes

that explore the intersection of music, technology, and cultural discourse,

such as AI and Posthumanist Aesthetics in Music (2022)

and Superman or Frankenstein? – Music and Technology in the Age of AI (2024).

In 2010, she received the Seoul National University Teaching Award, and from 2021 to 2026,

she has been conducting research as the principal investigator

for the National Research Foundation of Korea's Outstanding Scholar Support Program.

Education

Bachelor of Music in Piano, College of Music, Ewha Womans University
M.A. in Musicology, University of Freiburg, Germany
Ph.D. in Musicology, University of Freiburg, Germany

Professional Experience

Professor, College of Music, Seoul National University (2024–present)
Lecturer: Seoul National University, Ewha Womans University, Korea National University of Arts,
Myongji University, Hanyang University, and Pusan National University (1992–2004)
Former Director, Institute of Western Music Research, College of Music, Seoul National University.
Former Head, Planning and Public Relations Office, College of Music, Seoul National University
Former Director, Music Library, College of Music, Seoul National University
Associate Dean for Student Affairs, College of Music, Seoul National University (2019–2020)

Major Research Projects (Principal Investigator)

2000–2001: Korea Research Foundation, Humanities and Social Sciences Program – “Aesthetic Theories of 20th-Century Music”
2008–2009: Korea Research Foundation, Young Scholar Support Program – “Aesthetics of Musical Genius”
2012–2013: Korea Research Foundation, Basic Research in Humanities and Social Sciences (Mid-Career) – “Aesthetics of Musical Temporality”
2017–2018: Korea Research Foundation, Basic Research in Humanities and Social Sciences (Mid-Career) – “Chinese New Wave Music”
2018–2019: Korea Research Foundation, Scholarly Publication Support Program – “Aesthetics of Intertextuality in Music”
2021–2026: Korea Research Foundation, Distinguished Scholar Program – “Aesthetics of Musical Posthumanism”

2017: Interdisciplinary Research Project, Seoul National University – “Contemporary Opera in Korea and Japan”
2018: Interdisciplinary Research Project, Seoul National University – “Contemporary Chinese Opera”
2019: Interdisciplinary Research Project, Seoul National University – “Artificial Intelligence and the Aesthetics of Posthumanism”
2020: Kyujanggak Institute Project for the 21st Century Archive Development, Seoul National University – “Korean Contemporary Opera”

Scholarships and Awards

1990: Special Scholarship Recipient, Hindemith Foundation, Germany
2010: Recipient of the Teaching Award, Seoul National University

2004: Selected as a Recommended Academic Book by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism: Twentieth-Century Music Vol. 1 & 2
2024: Selected as a Recommended Academic Book by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism: Musicology
2005: Selected as a Recommended Academic Book by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism: Readings in Primary Sources of Musicology
2007: Selected as a Recommended Academic Book by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism: Readings in Musicological Literature
2007: Selected as a Recommended Academic Book by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism: Readings in the Sociology of Music
2009: Selected as a Recommended Academic Book by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism: Philosophy in Music, Music in Philosophy
2013: Selected as an Excellent Scholarly Book by the National Academy of Sciences, Republic of Korea: Genius in Music
2015: Selected as an Excellent Scholarly Book by the National Academy of Sciences, Republic of Korea: Contemporary Music in East Asia
2017: Selected as an Excellent Scholarly Book by the National Academy of Sciences, Republic of Korea: Aesthetic Perspectives on Music through Musical Works
2021: Selected as a Sejong Book (Academic Category) by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism: Contemporary Korean Music through the Lens of Interculturality
2021: Selected as a Sejong Book (Academic Category) by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism: The Great Legacy of Beethoven
2022: Selected as a Sejong Book (Academic Category) by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism: AI in Music and Posthumanist Aesthetics
2022: Selected as a Sejong Book (Academic Category) by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism: The Digital Revolution and Music
2023: Selected as a Sejong Book (Academic Category) by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism: Quotation Music as Cultural Symbol