Classical musician develops chart-topping apps to teach kids conservation – then gives them away for free
- Shirley Choi harnesses mobile technology to revolutionise the way children learn about a subject close to her heart
- One of her works hit No 4 on the iOS chart with more than 100,000 downloads – at one point beating apps from giant Amazon
Classically trained musician Shirley Choi has released three chart-topping mobile apps for children and is working on two more – but she has not received a penny for more than four years of work.
The composer-turned-producer says money is the last thing on her mind.
“I get emails that bring tears to my eyes,” Choi says. “I received an email from a mother of twin girls who said: ‘One of my girls reads your e-book to her sister every night, and they love the songs.’ I didn’t understand at first, but then I found out that one of the girls is blind.”
Choi attended high school in Hong Kong and Britain, and in 2005 moved to California to study music and business administration. While in the US, she met the Academy Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer, whose film scores include those for Pirates of the Caribbean, Inception and The Dark Knight trilogy.
