Introspective, referential, and observant, the music of Peter S. Shin 신세종 strives in reach of others. His work investigates issues of social and national belonging, the co-opting and intermingling of disparate musical vernaculars, and the liminality between the two halves of his second-generation Korean-U.S. American identity.

The New York Times described him as “a composer to watch,” noting his music as “entirely fresh and personal” following his premiere at Carnegie Hall. In awarding him the Charles Ives Fellowship, the American Academy of Arts and Letters wrote that Peter “has already established an individual voice,” highlighting Hyo—a work that reflects on his family’s immigration story from South Korea and meditates on themes of genealogy and impermanence amid rising anti-Asian sentiment during the COVID-19 outbreak. Commissioned by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra during his time as their Sound Investment Composer, Hyo was praised by the Academy for its “sophisticated wide range of beautiful orchestral sounds that unfold within a strong narrative,” calling it “honest, clear, heartfelt, original music.”

Peter is a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow and 2025/26 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University. He has received both the Charles Ives Scholarship and Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; a Fulbright Research Grant to South Korea; residency fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, and Loghaven; and commissions from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, American Composers Forum, and Chamber Music America.

Additional highlights include the release of Bits torn from words— a work about the reclamation of his mother tongue—on the vocal band Roomful of Teeth’s GRAMMY Award-winning album, Rough Magic (New Amsterdam Records); a performance of his electroacoustic dance work Screaming Shapes at Walt Disney Concert Hall; an orchestral commission for the Cabrillo Festival by John Adams and Deborah O’Grady; and the ongoing “Hallyu Interventions” series which contends with the globalization of South Korean contemporary culture known as the hallyu wave via the sounds of K-Pop.

A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Peter holds degrees from Michigan, USC, Yale, and UC Berkeley, and is the son of South Korean immigrants who have called the U.S. home for more than 30 years.