Ex-Korean vice minister sets Shakespeare's sonnets to AI music

Yong Ho-seong, Korea's former vice minister of culture, sports and tourism, released a full album on Nov. 10 that sets 15 of Shakespeare's sonnets to AI-assisted music — the first installment of a project to adapt all 154.

Performing under the stage name Dr. Dragon, Yong built "Fragile Beauty" around AI-assisted composition and AI vocals credited to a persona named NikkiD. The album opens "DiVerse," an ongoing series he plans to extend with a new sonnet-inspired release every month, spanning jazz, blues, hip-hop, rap-metal and K-pop.

The story matters beyond one unusual career pivot. It's a concrete example of how generative music tools are widening the pool of people who can produce finished records — in this case, a retired bureaucrat with deep musical literacy but no career as a composer. Yong's method, heavy prompting plus hands-on editing, offers a working model of human-AI collaboration rather than one-click generation.

Where did the idea come from?

The spark was a gift: a hardcover edition of Shakespeare's complete sonnets from a British friend, given while Yong served as director of the Korean Cultural Centre UK.

"The name reflects both Shakespeare's original verse and the newly written lyrics, as well as the diverse musical genres used to reimagine centuries-old classics," Yong told The Korea Times in an interview in Seoul on Thursday.

He didn't treat the sonnets as translation exercises. He adapted their themes for modern listeners. One verse about passing down family lineage became a message about artists sharing their talents with the world.

"Rather than simply translating archaic English, I adapted the themes so modern listeners can relate," he said.

What does the album sound like?

Yong aimed for late-1960s avant-garde folk and chamber folk, not orchestral sweep.

"Rather than big, sweeping arrangements, the quiet, intimate sound of late-1960s chamber folk felt like the right fit for these poems," Yong said.

The instrumentation is deliberately acoustic: nylon-string guitars, upright contrabass, cellos, violas, flutes, harmoniums and bass clarinets. Over that backdrop, the AI vocal persona NikkiD carries the melodies in contralto tones.

The takeaway: this is a record with a specific aesthetic brief, not a genre-neutral AI output.

How does he actually use AI?

Yong describes AI as an assistant, not an author. His workflow is prompt-intensive and iterative.

"AI is a loyal assistant that expands the possibilities of songwriting and production," he said. "I write detailed prompts spanning a full page to specify rhythm, instrumentation and musical references, and sometimes regenerate a track 30 or 40 times before editing individual tracks myself until I find the exact sound I envision."

That 30-to-40 regeneration figure is the mechanism worth noting. The human decides what survives. Yong compares the technology's arrival to digital sampling in the 1980s, which broadened who could make popular music without erasing human authorship.

"Just like sampling decades ago, AI acts as a faithful assistant that expands the pool of people who can create music, making the process far more efficient for everyone," Yong said.

He argues the tools lower a specific barrier: the years of formal composition training once required to realize a musical idea. People with a clear artistic perspective can now produce the sound they hear in their head. That's a claim educators are watching closely, and Yong extends it to classrooms himself, envisioning students turning personal stories and daily emotions into original songs.

"When students learn to turn their daily experiences into melodies, music becomes a powerful tool for self-expression," he said.

Who is Dr. Dragon?

Yong's musical credentials predate his AI work by decades. He studied classical music and jazz extensively before entering government service and collected more than 10,000 records.

In 1993, while still a government official, he debuted as a music critic after winning an annual criticism competition hosted by the performing arts magazine Auditorium. He has spent decades playing drums in jazz and rock bands.

His AI turn came with a competitive validation. In July, Yong won the AI.LOVE.JAZZ. composition competition in Montreux, Switzerland, with "Frozen Edge," a vocal jazz piece inspired by Shakespeare's Sonnet 97.

He retired from the bureaucracy last year, after a tenure in which he played a pivotal role in establishing major cultural institutions and drafting key legislation.

The pattern is consistent: a lifelong musician using new tools, not a newcomer adopting music as a hobby.

What comes after the 15 sonnets?

The pipeline is already full. After "Fragile Beauty," Yong plans monthly sonnet-inspired albums across widely different genres. He has contacted Shakespeare-related societies, associations and academic institutions worldwide to explore educational and cultural collaborations.

Two larger projects are in development:

• Progressive rock operas based on Shakespeare's tragedies, including "Hamlet" and "Macbeth."
• Contemporary folk and blues settings of the poetry of Yi Mae-chang (1573-1610), a Joseon Dynasty poet.

The Yi Mae-chang project has a clear logic for Yong. She lived during Shakespeare's era and wrote from a difficult, sorrowful life.

"Just as I am reimagining Shakespeare, I wanted to bring the poignant and soul-searching poetry of Yi Mae-chang into contemporary folk and blues," Yong said. "Living during the same era as Shakespeare, while enduring a difficult and sorrowful life, her verses overflow with a deep emotional resonance that translates remarkably well into the language of modern blues."

Does he make money from this?

Barely, and that appears to be the point. Yong composes up to six hours a day and practices drums for two more. He recently earned his first-ever revenue as a musician by composing a theme song for T&C Foundation, a public interest foundation.

He frames the whole endeavor as a well-prepared second act, driven by personal fulfillment rather than commercial ambition.

"For me, happiness is not about the high intensity of achievements, but the frequency of joyful moments," Yong said. "Whether it is practicing drums in the morning or giving classical literature a new voice through modern music, I am simply enjoying a life where I can freely explore what I love."

If the monthly schedule holds, "DiVerse" will turn one retiree's prompt-writing discipline into one of the most systematic tests yet of AI-assisted art song — 154 sonnets, one release at a time.