Photo by Haseok Chung
Rin Seo (b. 1990) is a Korean composer, conductor and pianist based in New York City. Raised in a rich musical environment encompassing Western classical, jazz, theater, and Korean folk music, Seo creates genre-defying works that blend eclectic idioms with a distinctive voice and inventive spirit.
Her signature 14-piece chamber jazz orchestra, the Rin Seo Collective, embodies her compositional philosophy—masterfully uniting the richness of jazz with the depth of orchestral textures through innovative instrumentation and musicality. The ensemble’s debut album is slated for release in fall 2025.
She holds a Bachelor of Music in Classical Composition from the Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul, South Korea. Driven by a passion to expand her sonic spectrum, she moved to the United States to study jazz performance and composition at the Berklee College of Music, where she was awarded a scholarship and earned a Professional Diploma. Seo further refined her craft, studying with Grammy Award-winning composer Jim McNeely during her Master's degree at the Manhattan School of Music.
Seo’s notable awards and honors include ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award (2020), DownBeat magazine Student Music Award (2020), and BMI Booker Scholarship for young jazz artists (2019). Additionally, she received numerous grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Korean Cultural Center New York, and the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture.
Her music has been featured at prominent venues including Dizzy’s Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Jazz Gallery, and The Jarasum Jazz Festival in Korea, among others.