Helen Sung is an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

pianist.

Music career

Sung is a native of

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, Texas, and is of Chinese heritage. She attended Houston's

High School for the Performing and Visual Arts Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (Kinder HSPVA, HSPVA or PVA) is a secondary school located at 790 Austin Street in the downtown district of Houston, Texas. The school is a part of the Houston Independent School District. ...

, and went on to receive undergraduate and master's degrees in classical piano performance at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. She first heard jazz music during that time and eventually switched her focus. She went on to graduate from

Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", "B ...

Institute of Jazz Performance. Highlights of the two-year program include performing at the Kennedy Center and touring India and Thailand with

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he help ...

and

Wayne Shorter Wayne Shorter (born August 25, 1933) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Shorter came to prominence in the late 1950s as a member of, and eventually primary composer for, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. In the 1960s, he joined Miles Davi ...

. Sung won the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Piano Competition in 2007 and was a semifinalist in the Monk Institute Piano Competition in 1999. She appeared on the radio show ''

Piano Jazz ''Piano Jazz'' is a weekly one-hour radio show produced and distributed by National Public Radio (NPR). It began on June 4, 1978, and was hosted by jazz pianist Marian McPartland (1918–2013) until 2011. It is the longest-running cultural pro ...

'' with

Marian McPartland Margaret Marian McPartland OBE ( Turner;Hasson, Claire"Marian McPartland: Jazz Pianist: An Overview of a Career" PhD Thesis. Retrieved 12 August 2008. 20 March 1918 – 20 August 2013), was an English–American jazz pianist, composer, and wri ...

on NPR. She has performed at many festivals, including the Monterey Jazz Festival, Detroit International Jazz Festival, Aspen Institute Ideas Festival, Seattle's Earshot Festival, and the Mary Lou Williams Festival sponsored by the Kennedy Center. She has been featured at the Wigan International Jazz Festival, China's Jz Festival, India's "Jus' Jazz" Festival, and the Kalisz International Jazz Piano Festival in Poland. She and her group NuGenerations toured southern Africa as

jazz ambassadors Jazz ambassadors is the name often given to jazz musicians who were sponsored by the US State Department to tour Eastern Europe, the Middle East, central and southern Asia and Africa as part of cultural diplomacy initiatives to promote American ...

. She has worked with

Clark Terry Clark Virgil Terry Jr. (December 14, 1920 – February 21, 2015) was an American swing and bebop trumpeter, a pioneer of the flugelhorn in jazz, and a composer and educator. He played with Charlie Barnet (1947), Count Basie (1948–51), Duke ...

Slide Hampton Locksley Wellington Hampton (April 21, 1932 – November 18, 2021) was an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger. As his nickname implies, Hampton's main instrument was slide trombone, but he also occasionally played tuba and flugelho ...

Ron Carter Ronald Levin Carter (born May 4, 1937) is an American jazz double bassist. His appearances on 2,221 recording sessions make him the most-recorded jazz bassist in history. He has won three Grammy awards, and is also a cellist who has recorded nu ...

Jon Faddis Jon Faddis (born July 24, 1953) is an American jazz trumpet player, conductor, composer, and educator, renowned for both his playing and for his expertise in the field of music education. Upon his first appearance on the scene, he became known ...

T. S. Monk Thelonious Sphere "T. S." Monk III (born December 27, 1949) is an American jazz drummer, composer and bandleader. He is the son of jazz pianist Thelonious Monk. Biography Born in New York City, he began his music career early in his life, honin ...

MacArthur Fellow The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 ind ...

Regina Carter Regina Carter (born August 6, 1966) is an American jazz violinist. She is the cousin of jazz saxophonist James Carter. Early life Carter was born in Detroit and was one of three children in her family. She began piano lessons at the age of t ...

, and

Terri Lyne Carrington Terri Lyne Carrington (born August 4, 1965) is an American jazz drummer, composer, producer, and educator. She has played with Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Clark Terry, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Joe Sample, Al Jarreau, Yellowjackets, and ma ...

. Sung produced a jazz residency program for under-served students (through a Chamber Music America/Doris Duke Foundation grant), conducts workshops/master-classes, and joined the Berklee College of Music as an Associate Piano Professor in the Fall of 2011. She has completed composition commissions for the West Chester University Poetry Conference, arts organization JazzReach, the artisanal North Coast Brewing Company, and was selected as a 2010 NYC Spaces/Con Edison Composer-in-Residence at Flushing Town Hall.

Discography

As leader

* ''Push'' (Fresh Sound, 2003) * ''Helenistique'' (Fresh Sound, 2006) * ''Sungbird'' (Sunnyside, 2007) * ''Going Express'' (Sunnyside, 2011) * ''(re) Conception'' (SteepleChase, 2011) * ''Anthem for a New Day'' (Concord Jazz, 2014) * ''Sung With Words'' (Stricker Street, 2018) * ''Quartet+'' (Sunnyside, 2021)

As guest

* Ester Andujar, ''Celebrating Cole Porter'' (Omix, 2005) *

Louie Bellson Louie Bellson (born Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni, July 6, 1924 – February 14, 2009), often seen in sources as Louis Bellson, although he himself preferred the spelling Louie, was an American jazz drummer. He was a composer, ...

, ''Louie & Clark Expedition 2'' (Percussion Power, 2008) *

, ''The Mosaic Project'' (Concord, 2015) *

Joe Chambers Joe or JOE may refer to: Arts Film and television * ''Joe'' (1970 film), starring Peter Boyle * ''Joe'' (2013 film), starring Nicolas Cage * ''Joe'' (TV series), a British TV series airing from 1966 to 1971 * ''Joe'', a 2002 Canadian animated ...

, ''Horace to Max'' (Savant, 2010) *

Frank Lacy Frank Lacy (born August 9, 1958, Houston, Texas) is an American jazz trombonist who has spent many years as a member of the Mingus Big Band. Career Lacy's father was a teacher who played guitar with Arnett Cobb, Illinois Jacquet, and Eddie Clea ...

Mingus Big Band The Mingus Big Band is a 14-piece ensemble, based in New York City, that specializes in the compositions of Charles Mingus. It was managed by his widow, Sue Mingus, along with the Mingus Orchestra and Mingus Dynasty. In addition to its weekly Monda ...

, ''Mingus Sings'' (Sunnyside, 2015) *

Wynton Marsalis Wynton Learson Marsalis (born October 18, 1961) is an American trumpeter, composer, teacher, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has promoted classical and jazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has won nine Grammy Awar ...

, ''Handful of Keys'' (Blue Engine, 2017) *

Lonnie Plaxico Lonnie Plaxico (born September 4, 1960) is an American jazz double bassist. Biography Plaxico was born in Chicago, Illinois, into a musical family, and started playing the bass at the age of twelve, turning professional at fourteen (playing both ...

, ''Melange'' (Blue Note, 2001) *

Marcus Printup Marcus Edward Printup (born January 24, 1967) is an American jazz trumpeter who attended the University of North Florida Jazz Studies program and went on to work with Betty Carter, Wynton Marsalis, The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, and Tim ...

, ''Lost'' (SteepleChase, 2014) *

Scott Robinson Scott Robinson may refer to: * Scott Robinson (jazz musician) (born 1959), American jazz musician * Scott Robinson (ice hockey) (born 1964), Canadian National Hockey League player * Scott Robinson (singer) (born 1979), English singer in the boy ban ...

, ''Tenormore'' (Arbors, 2019) *

Gregory Tardy Gregory Tardy is an American jazz saxophonist, who has released albums for the record labels SteepleChase Records, J Curve Records, and Impulse! Records.Allmusic discography/ref> As of May 2015 he is teaching at the University of Tennessee, Knoxv ...

, ''Hope'' (SteepleChase, 2014) *

, ''Live at Marihans'' (Chiaroscuro, 2005)

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sung, Helen Living people American classical musicians of Chinese descent American classical pianists American women classical pianists American jazz pianists American musicians of Taiwanese descent American women musicians of Chinese descent Musicians from Houston Year of birth missing (living people) University of Texas at Austin College of Fine Arts alumni High School for the Performing and Visual Arts alumni Jazz musicians from Texas Classical musicians from Texas 21st-century classical pianists 21st-century American women pianists 21st-century American pianists Mingus Big Band members Fresh Sounds Records artists SteepleChase Records artists Concord Records artists Sunnyside Records artists