A Composer’s Journey

By Patrick Bohn ’05, July 23, 2026

The artistic path of Bora Yoon ’02, from singer-songwriter to renowned soundscape creator, started at Ithaca College.

Bora Yoon ’02,was classically trained at IC, but has since expanded her repertoire and become a world-renowned soundscape artist. (Photo submitted)

To watch a performance by Bora Yoon ’02 , whether in a small, intimate setting, or at the iconic Lincoln Center in New York City, is to hear sound and see visuals that engulf the entire space, surrounding the audience in an immersive experience of multiple senses.

If that sounds like a lot, it’s because it is. Yoon is a world-renowned soundscape creator whose performances take place on stages around the world. “I would describe it as electroacoustic and multimedia storytelling through sound design, song, and gesture,” she said. “A type of sonic world-building that provides my audience with a multimedia concert experience.”

How is that world built? It’s through a deliberate process.

“I call this body of work ‘( (( PHONATION )) )’ (2007), which means the utterance of sound into language,” she said. “If I exhale into a microphone and add reverb, it sounds like the wind,” she said. “The flipping pages of a phone book sound like the wind blowing through leaves, while submerging a flask underwater creates the sound of a babbling brook. The question I am asking myself is, How do I take these seemingly found sounds and turn them into music?” she continued.

“The idea behind the music industry at that time was, What bin does your CD go into at Tower Records? The advent and growth of digital music since that time has freed one from genre because one is not bound by a capital constraint, and all one’s musical identities can be honored.”

Bora Yoon ’02

Adding in colors creates the full experience. One of Yoon’s soundscapes, “In Paradisum” from 2014’s Sunken Cathedral takes on the dark blue and violet hues of the evening, while another features the bright marigold of an early morning sunrise.

This unique experience is a shift from the sound Yoon developed as a student. “That was my nascent singer-songwriter phase,” she said. “It was folky and granola. The idea behind the music industry at that time was, What bin does your CD go into at Tower Records?” Yoon added. “The advent and growth of digital music since that time has freed one from genre because one is not bound by a capital constraint, and all one’s musical identities can be honored.”

Bora Yoon performaning at Lincoln Center

Yoon's performances have taken her to places such as New York's iconic Lincoln Center. (Photo submitted)

(Photo submitted)

Yoon’s time at Ithaca was formative, inside the classroom and out. She was, in her own words, “cobbling together a songwriting degree” with a music major and a minor in creative writing. “The writing department helped me discern my writer’s voice, and the music school taught me musical and compositional expression,” she said.

She also produced two solo albums while at IC, the second of which, Proscenium (2003), was produced with the recording help of audio production majors.

Yoon also founded the Ithaca College Songwriters’ Circle, a group of student singer/songwriters and creator/composers who performed their own work and put out a record. “I was getting the conservatory mentality in the classroom, learning the nuts and bolts of harmony and counterpoint, and then the circle put it into practice,” she said. “I had the best of both worlds.”