“ I hope to compose music that can touch the soul.”

 

 Musicals are blooming out among the public and many enthusiastic Ewha graduates are taking up professions in the popular field. Among the crew, Park Youn-young (’01, Psychology), is a successful music composer for musicals.
Park Youn-young, a composer for musicals, drew public attention with the musical named Belle of the Ball Bearings where she composed the music herself.

 

 Belle of the Ball Bearings is a monologue musical in which one actor plays 15 roles alone. A careful approach in music is required to help the actress express her diverse emotions  properly according to each different role.
 

 “I was attracted by the idea that one actor can express diverse characters with the help of music,” Park said.

 “Diverse characters make harmony in the show along with different genres of music.” 

 She was a fan of musicals since young. “I loved the musical Sound of Music so much that I watched it for more than 100 times and even acted it out with friends,” she said.

 When she entered college, her parents recommended her to study psychology instead of music since they thought human psychology is an essential element of musicals and thus, requires a humanism background.

 “It was hard to study my major and keep up with musical club activities,” Park said. But now she appreciates her parents for the good advice. “As time went by I realized more and more that a humanism background had become a strong merit for me.”

 Her experience in New York University has also became a great asset for her career.

 “I remember when I studied in New York. I wouldn’t have been able to manage life there without the financial and mental support I got from many people,” Park said.

 Such appreciation she felt for those who supported her made her decide to establish a volunteer organization, EnoB. EnoB is a musical volunteer club, which performs free musicals for underprivileged people and pediatric patients. Her peers in Broad way helped her bring the performances successfully.

 In the summer of 2010, her friendship with alumnae in New York University once again helped her perform the musical The Emperor’s Quest, a family musical that dramatizes well-known Asian traditional fairy tales, at Edinburgh Fringe Festival in England. She collaborated on the script with Susannah Pearse, her college friend, and wrote songs for the musical.

 “I think it was a good opportunity to express the Asian sentiment to the world. I used Korean, Chinese and Japanese traditional musical techniques to effectively show the Asian sentiment,” said Park.

 As a result, the performance received the Judges’ Discretionary Award in the 2010 Musical Theatre Awards from the Musical Theatre Matters (MTM:UK), which is a not-for-profit organization established in the UK to develop and champion new musicals, new opportunities and new writers throughout the UK .
 

 For her, musical is a genre that requires inspiration and abundant emotions as well as deep knowledge in musicals.

 “I think that all genres of art have their own language. No good works can be made without a thorough understandings about that language,” she said.
 

 According to her definition, musical music is the human soul and heartbeat. “I hope to compose music that can touch the human soul,” Park said. 

Producers of the family muscial The Emperor’s Quest during a staff meeting (above). The entire cast of the muscial Belle of the Ball Bearings pose on stage (below).

저작권자 © Ewha Voice 무단전재 및 재배포 금지