Ray Seol

Biography
Influencers

Ray Seol is an Associate Professor of Professional Music and a Fulbright Scholar, as well as a distinguished jazz bassist and producer. He began shaping his musical identity at The New School’s School of Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City, studying under legendary bassists Reggie Workman and Buster Williams.

His ability to fuse sound and color through synesthesia led to pioneering work in sonic visualization, developed during his master’s studies in music technology at New York University. This concept evolved into Interactive Jazz: Jazz as a New Visual Art, which has been showcased in galleries across New York and Seoul.

Since 2007, he has released five studio albums and performed at major international jazz festivals, collaborating with artists such as Jason Moran, Marta Gómez, Scott Robinson, Art Hirahara, and Takuya Kuroda. He also participated in the Latin Grammy–nominated album Yeah Won, the first Korean album recognized in the Música Popular Brasileira category. His Fulbright-sponsored project album, The Prison of Language, is set to be released in 2026, and his book The Prison of Language, which addresses suicide prevention, is now being developed into a music-theatre work.

At Berklee, Seol pioneered K-pop as an experiential learning platform, founding student idol groups X-Change and B-Girls. His signature course, K-Pop and Beyond, ranks among Berklee’s most popular offerings and is accompanied by the annual K-Pop and Beyond Conference, featuring guests such as Kenzie, Andrew Choi, Adrian McKinnon, Jae Chong, Chris Lee, Chikk, and EJAE. He has presented his K-pop research at Uppsala University, the Museum of Fine Arts, and Wellesley College, and his insights continue to be featured in major media outlets such as The New York Times, CNN, CBS, and ABC, alongside his scholarly work on global music pedagogy.