Joe Kye is a Portland-based musician, storyteller, and performing artist. His practice explores Korean history, traditional music, and personal ancestry while connecting to his lived experience as an immigrant kid growing up in the Pacific Northwest.

His works have been commissioned by Resonance Ensemble, Portland Center Stage, and the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery. Kye has opened for Yo-Yo Ma, recorded a Tedx Talk, and been featured on NPR programs like Livewire and The World.

In October 2026, Kye premiered through-lineage, a one-person show about his grandfather, a North Korean refugee and escaped prisoner-of-war turned textile designer. Combining intimate storytelling, tactile projection art, ritual, and improvised music, this unique, deeply personal piece has received rave reviews.

Joe’s currently developing a new solo music project: Joseph in the Well. Using violin, loops, vocals, and electronic effects, Joseph in the Well gives voice to the inner mind of a Korean American artist at odds with the oppressive structures of Empire and man-made borders. Messy and experimental, electric yet deeply rooted in Korean traditional vocabulary, Joseph in the Well is a sonic current flowing between generations and geography.