Charunee Hongcharu is one of the few professional female conductors in Thailand who has performed many distinguished national performances, one of which was during the opening and closing ceremonies of the 13th Asian Games in Thailand in 1998. She became more widely known from her conducting of Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 for Thai-Japanese Concert, in celebration of the 120th anniversary of the two nations’ diplomatic relationship. Besides, she has conducted other compositions continually both in Thailand and abroad, including early in the year 2000 at The Great Jubilee Concert that hosted audiences as many as 30,000, during which she had conducted the Christian Chorus with an equivalent of 400 choir members.

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Hongcharu graduated with a Bachelor of Fine and Applied Arts, First Class honours in Flute and Music Composition, from Chulalongkorn University; and a Master in Music Conducting from Columbia University in New York. She also attended the Juilliard School of Music and Westminster Choir College for choral conducting during her time in the U.S. She had an opportunity to further study in opera and orchestral conducting, and, in 2008, got the Goethe-Institut Scholarship to attend as a guest participant in the Bachwoche. There, she conducted in front of Maestro Helmuth Rilling in Stuttgart, Germany. She earned her doctoral degree in Thai Theatre from the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Chulalongkorn University.

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Currently, Hongcharu is an associate professor teaching Musical Theatre, Singing for Theatre, and Speech and Voice Training at the Department of Dramatic Arts, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University. She has been the music director of Bangkok Combined Choir and Orchestra (BCCO) since 2001, although it was actually in 1996 that she was invited for the first time to conduct. She has also been actively working in the musical theatre realm, having composed and directed numerous captivating works, the most recent being 'Heart of Stone The Musical,' which skillfully merges the essence of Thailand’s epic poem, Phra Aphai Mani, with Western musical traditions; and ‘Touches Mala The Musical,’ which reimagines the classic tale of Romeo and Juliet through the lens of Thai culture, combining the love story with the artistry of Thai martial arts.

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Hongcharu has played a pivotal role in a collaboration led by the Department of Cultural Promotion, resulting in the creation of a new 'Songkran Song,' a joyful composition to be celebrated during Thailand's most cherished festival. Hongcharu’s 'Songkran Song' was translated into a total of twenty languages, broadening its reach beyond Thai borders.