Katherine In-Young Lee, associate professor of ethnomusicology in the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, has received the Béla Bartók Award for Outstanding Ethnomusicology from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers for her book, “Dynamic Korea and Rhythmic Form.”

In-Young Lee’s book explores how samul nori, a percussion genre from South Korea became a global music genre. Within the book, she contends that rhythm-based forms serve as a critical site for cross-cultural musical encounters.

The award is a part of the ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Awards program, which recognizes books, articles and recording liner notes on the subject of music. The awards were established in 1967 in honor of composer, critic, commentator and former president of ASCAP, Deems Taylor. In 2014 the award was renamed to also honor the memory of Virgil Thomson, a leading American composer and critic of the 20th century, and a former member of the ASCAP board of directors.

Lee’s research interests include East Asia, Korean music, music and politics, sound studies, historiography and ethnography. In-Young Lee’s research on the role of music at scenes of protest during South Korea’s democratization movement was previously recognized with a Charles Seeger Prize from the Society for Ethnomusicology and a Martin Hatch Award from the Society for Asian Music.