سيرة
Music director Chung Yeakyung entered the world of music at the age of 3, making friends with the piano that her grandfather bought her. She debuted as a composer at the age of 11, winning the Grand Prize and the Minister of Education Award at the 13th MBC Creative Children's Song Contest, which was one of the most popular TV programs of the time. The award winning song "My Favorite Word" that she wrote and sang herself, was frequently broadcast on a national TV network. The song became so well known that now it is on national music textbook of Korea, which is taught to elementary and middle school students nationwide. She was also registered as the youngest member of the Korea Music Copyright Association.
Chung Yeakyung went to Yewon middle school of music and majored in classical singing. She also attended Korea National University of Arts Preparatory School at the same time and majored in composition. Later she moved on to study composition at Seoul Arts High School. She was the very first student to be accepted by the composition department of Seoul National University at early decision, and graduated Summa Cum Laude valedictorian.
Even before entering university, she had already started working as a professional arranger and orchestrator. Her clients were some of Korea's top classical artists and organizations such as soprano Sumi Jo, KBS Symphony Orchestra, Korean Symphony Orchestra, as well as Italian String Orchestra I Musici. Her specialty was to come up with creative and artistic orchestral sounds, that also resonated with the audience of all ages.
One of her well known anecdotes is about working with Grammy award-winning soprano Sumi Jo. During a world tour, Sumi Jo had a lay over in Korea and lost her music scores. Chung Yeakyung flawlessly recreated the orchestra scores by ear in just few hours so that Sumi Jo could successfully finish her next show in Australia. Those scores have been used for over 22 years without any revision until Sumi Jo's Carnegie Hall performance in New York.
After university, she began her career as a singer-songwriter, releasing her first album with Sony BMG. She also wrote her first musical Moby Dick, which later received the Innovation and the Music Award at the Yegrin Awards.
She then went on to study Scoring for Film & Multimedia at New York University. During her master's degree at New York University, she was awarded Women in Film Scholarship by the Sorel Organization. Also she became the 2012 Skirball Film Scoring Competition Winner. In 2014, she was named a Top 5 Finalist of the CINE International Film Scoring Competition at the Marvin Hamlisch International Music Awards. Meanwhile, she was selected as one of the 10 participants for Marvin Hamlisch Workshop, a program hosted by ASCAP that fosters young Broadway musical directors. She learned from many important Broadway figures such as Stephen Schwartz, composer for the musical Wicked. In New York, Chung Yeakyung studied various score compositions and conducting orchestra. She also laid the foundation for creating K-pop and K-drama music by taking songwriting class by the Eagles' Glenn Frey at New York University. Upon graduating Summa Cum Laude, she won the Vic Mizzy Scholarship for promising TV/broadcast music composer at the 18th Annual ASCAP Foundation Awards Ceremony and began her career in the United States.
Chung Yeakyung is currently the music director and the head of "Bronc Music", a screen music production company comprised of multinational composers. Bronc Music has been a prolific producer for K-pop, K-drama and movies such as Orange Marmalade, Chocolate, My Dangerous Wife, Sisyphus:The Myth, From now on, Showtime, Villains, etc. as well as upcoming series Day or Night for her (2024) and Mrs. Ok(2024).
She has also founded ChungYeaKyung Pops Orchestra, incorporating some of the most talented musicians and singers in Korea. Her orchestra's signature All Stars Gala Concert is produced in Haute-Couture manner with a new and different concept every year. It is greatly loved by its sponsors and patrons, and the orchestra is growing exponentially, performing for government events and private companies.
Chung Yeakyung is one of the most prominent young music directors, active in K-drama and Korean music scene. She also leads her own Pops orchestra and meets the audience both on screen and live stages.
