Meet Ching-Shan Chang: Composer, arranger, pianist, and orchestrator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ching-Shan Chang and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ching-Shan, putting aside the decision to work for yourself, what other decisions were critical to your success?
Learning to embrace my identity and background, and discovering my own unique voice and style is perhaps the most important decision I made that contributed to my success. Over time I realized the habit I’d developed of feeling overly competitive didn’t do me any favors and even crippled my creativity. Imitating other people’s style or workflow might be necessary when learning but I’ve come to the realization that collaborators should come to me for one reason: my one-of-a-kind voice—not just for a mediocre version of John Williams or whoever your idol is. Harry Gregson-Williams once said in an interview that he’s not a “mini Hans Zimmer,” nor does he try to be. I try to keep that in mind and be more instinctive when translating my thoughts into music. There’s still a long way to go in discovering my real and original voice, but my music has brought orchestras, performers, and a variety of collaborators who are interested in working together, so I believe I’m probably on the right path!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’m a composer for multimedia and concert music, arranger, pianist, and an orchestrator. Growing up with classic movies such as Jurassic Park, Star Wars and Disney animation, film music has always been one of my passions. In the absence of a systematic film music program in my home country (Taiwan), I began my music training in classical music at a young age. The journey that led me to film music wasn’t all that smooth but I discovered so many things along the way that made me a better composer and who I am today.

“Music should always tell a story with or without the visuals” is the main principle that I try to uphold in multimedia scoring. As someone who has been through the frustration of trying to make a breakthrough in contemporary music, I could say film music came into my life just the right time to save myself from this boundless limbo. Although my training doesn’t perfectly align with my desire to write film music and I still lack many of the technical skills this industry requires, I tried to compensate by reading books, taking extra engineering courses at NYU and learning from other composers. I strongly believe that by playing and experimenting with the things you’re not familiar with over and over, eventually it’ll start to make sense.

Although I’m still learning every day and searching for my voice, I’m extremely proud of the 100-minute musical for a 64-piece orchestra that I composed, arranged and produced with the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra and StoryWorks. It was the first large scale project I’ve done and the first time applying everything I’ve learned in a single project.
In short, knowing how to embrace your identity and stay true to your heart is always the key. And being lost and making mistakes doesn’t mean you’re not the winner of your life—you just took a little detour!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
LA is such a big place that you could spend weeks exploring indoor and outdoor activities, food, drinks, and museums. As an outdoor lover myself, I would highly recommend Topanga and its hiking trails. They all have amazing views scattered throughout. I’ve stayed in some small cabins in Topanga before and never experienced such tranquility and calmness at night. The mountainous area also has cleaner air and less light pollution, so every night you can just look up to a sky filled with stars.

For the urban areas, you can’t leave LA without visiting Santa Monica and the beautiful coastline which has a wide variety of restaurants and bars. For seafood lovers, I would highly recommend Water Grill. If you’re going to hang around the area, as a proud Taiwanese, I would also suggest that you try the renowned soup dumplings at Din Tai Fung (super delicious)!

While there are plenty more attractions to visit, don’t forget to stop by the legendary Hollywood sign situated across the Griffith Observatory which offers a great view of both the sign and the greater LA area. Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I wish I could dedicate this shoutout to everyone who has helped, loved, and supported me throughout my career, but if I had to pick, I would like to give composer Tom Holkenborg (a.k.a. Junkie XL) and his amazing team a shoutout. Remembering how much I adored his score in Mad Max: Fury Road and idolized him when I was younger, it was a surreal experience when I interned in his studio in LA after finishing my master’s. It was not only very cool to be part of their 9am meeting with Tom and the rest of his team every other day, but also rewarding and enlightening having one-on-one sessions with Tom where he gave direct feedback on my music, shared his experience working in Hollywood and the “secret sauce” behind his soundtracks, and fun stories about how he had his friend customize massive bass drum and shipped it to a recording stage for Mad Max on a truck.

Aside from Tom’s mentorship and guidance, the other important thing I walked away with was a deep bond with the other assistants. The team felt like a family and we treated each other equally regardless of background or experience. They were supportive when I was feeling stressed and always very patient when answering my questions. For someone who just left an academic environment, I was very fortunate to have met them as they inspired me to be a better composer and a kinder human being.

Website: https://www.chingshanchang.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cschang0923/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ching-shan-chang/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jchang0923/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chingshanchang1

Other: https://soundcloud.com/chingshanchang https://vimeo.com/chingshanchang

Image Credits
Boris Nazarov Brigid Schlunegger