Jaeyoung Chong is a trained and established cellist and a profound musician passionate in many artistic medium such as improvisation, creative live performance, composition, electroacoustic technology and music production. His recent awards include Music New Brunswick's "Recording of the Year" for his self-produced album "Nostalgia".
Born in South Korea, Jaeyoung began studying at the age of 8 and quickly reached an advanced level when he moved to Canada with his family in 2005. Under the direction of Shimon Walt, a renowned cello professor at Dalhousie University, Jaeyoung has continued to develop his musical abilities leading to many awards and distinctions from local, provincial, and national levels. Summer music camps and festivals, such as Domaine Forget, NAC Pre-college program, Orford and National Youth Orchestra of Canada, are normal occurrence for young Jaeyoung and has managed to work with renowned cellists like Steve Doane, Matt Haimovitz, Blair Lofgren, Richard Aaron, Phillipe Muller, Laurence Lesser, and Collin Carr.
His involvement with the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra goes all the way back to 2007. The majority of his training and involvement with NBYO and Sistema NB until today has contributed greatly to his cello playing and deeper perspectives to the world of music. He was the principal cellist for NBYO for 4 consecutive years and was also the featured soloist with the orchestra in the 2012-2013 seasons. Jaeyoung continues to be involved with Sistema NB as a full time cello teaching artist and is a cello coach for NBYO.
Jaeyoung received his Bachelor in Music Performance from the University of Ottawa in 2017 under the direction of Paul Marleyn. Jaeyoung was heavily involved in the Ottawa music scene throughout his undergraduate years. He was a member of the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, was a featured soloist with the University of Ottawa Orchestra, won over $10,000 worth of scholarships, bursaries and competition which lead him to more performance opportunities such as being a featured soloist with the National Arts Center Orchestra. After his studies in Ottawa, he received a full-ride scholarship to Rice University and pursued his masters degree under the tutelage of Desmond Hoebig: a renowned soloist and orchestral cellist of today.
As for his creative endeavours, Jaeyoung has experimented with composition from an early age and continued to test his creative potential through solo works, chamber works and improvisation. At the age of 16 he released his first album “Endless” where he experimented with minimalist compositional techniques. Through out his studies at Rice University, he found an interest in electroacoustic music and performed a creative recital project called “New Modern” where he performed his own works accompanied by backing track produced by himself along with contemporary works by other composers and improvisations.
His creative experiences and performances range from experimental, classical, to contemporary pop, and is still currently experimenting with music production, new music and contemporary techniques on the cello.
