Grand Prize Winner of the 37th Creative Gugak Children's Song Contest: Composer Min Yuri

Non-Majors Create Children's Songs Out of Love for Gugak
12 Award-Winning Scores and Audio to Be Released in July

The National Gugak Center held the awards ceremony for the 37th Creative Gugak Children's Song Contest and announced on the 18th that "Sogeumeul Mandeuneun Maetdol" (The Millstone That Makes Salt) was selected as the grand prize winner.

On the morning of the 18th, Min Yuri, the grand prize winner at the awards ceremony of the 37th Creative Gugak Children's Song Contest held at the National Gugak Center in Seocho-gu, Seoul, is delivering her acceptance speech.
[Photo by National Gugak Center]

This year, 121 works were submitted to the contest. Including the grand prize, a total of 12 songs were selected as winners: 2 Excellence Awards and 9 Encouragement Awards.

The Creative Gugak Children's Song Contest, which began in 1987, has discovered over 510 gugak children's songs over 37 years. Among these, about 20 songs have been included in elementary school textbooks and are loved by children.

Min Yuri, the composer who won the grand prize, said, "Although I am not a major in gugak composition, I love gugak and have continued to create gugak children's songs with the hope that gugak becomes more familiar to children, so I think I received this great award. I hope gugak children's songs help children cherish and love gugak."

Kim Young-woon, director of the National Gugak Center, urged, "I hope that gugak children's songs will be sung not only by our children but also by many children around the world, playing an important role in giving them dreams and hope."

The National Gugak Center plans to produce the "Gugak Children's Song Anthology Vol. 34," which includes the sheet music and audio recordings of the 12 winning songs, and will provide it on the National Gugak Center website and the Gugak Archive Portal in July. The audio recordings will also be released on domestic and international music platforms such as Genie Music, Melon, Spotify, and YouTube Music.