Hugh Sung (born September 25, 1968) is a

Korean-American Korean Americans are Americans of Korean ancestry (mostly from South Korea). In 2015, the Korean-American community constituted about 0.56% of the United States population, or about 1.82 million people, and was the fifth-largest Asian Americans ...

classical

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

Early life

Born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, Sung began studying the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

with his mother at the age of three. At the age of eight, he began private studies with Eleanor Sokoloff. Sung made his debut with the

Philadelphia Orchestra The Philadelphia Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of the " Big Five" American orchestras, the orchestra is based at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where it performs its subscription ...

three years later, performing the

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

Piano Concerto in B-flat major, K. 456 with his own

cadenza In music, a cadenza (from it, cadenza, link=no , meaning cadence; plural, ''cadenze'' ) is, generically, an improvisation, improvised or written-out ornament (music), ornamental passage (music), passage played or sung by a solo (music), sol ...

. In 1982, at the age of thirteen, Sung was admitted to the

Curtis Institute of Music The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on full scholarship. Hi ...

, where he continued his musical studies with Eleanor Sokoloff,

Jorge Bolet Jorge Bolet (November 15, 1914October 16, 1990) was a Cuban-born American virtuoso pianist and teacher. Among his teachers were Leopold Godowsky, and Moriz Rosenthal – the latter an outstanding pupil of Franz Liszt. Life Bolet was born in Havan ...

and

Seymour Lipkin Seymour Lipkin ( May 14, 1927 – November 16, 2015) was an American concert pianist, conductor, and educator. Early life and piano career Lipkin was born in Detroit. At age 11, he entered the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with Dav ...

Career

By the time Sung graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music with a bachelor's degree, he had performed again with the Philadelphia Orchestra, toured extensively with the South Jersey

Symphony Orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ce ...

, and debuted with the Concerto Soloists Orchestra (currently known as the

Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia is an American chamber orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its principal concert venue is the Perelman Theater of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, of which the orchestra is a founding ...

). During his final year of study, Sung started touring collaboratively with legendary violinist

Aaron Rosand Aaron Rosand (born Aaron Rosen; March 15, 1927 – July 9, 2019) was an American violinist. Life and career Born in Hammond, Indiana, he studied with Leon Sametini at the Chicago Musical College and with Efrem Zimbalist at the Curtis Institu ...

. That partnership eventually led to his appointment as staff pianist at the Curtis Institute in 1993. Three years later, he was named Director of Instrumental Accompaniment, and then in 1998, Director of Student Recitals. Sung has toured extensively in cities throughout the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. He has collaborated with renowned musicians such as

Julius Baker Julius Baker (September 23, 1915 – August 6, 2003) was one of the foremost American orchestral flute players. During the course of five decades he concertized with several of America's premier orchestral ensembles including the Chicago Sympho ...

Jeffrey Khaner Jeffrey Khaner (born December 22, 1958) is the principal flutist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has also served as principal flutist with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony. Khaner teaches at the Curtis Institute of Music, ...

, Hilary Hahn and

Leila Josefowicz Leila Bronia Josefowicz ( ; born October 20, 1977) is an American-Canadian classical violinist. Biography Josefowicz was born in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. When she was a young child her family moved to Los Angeles, California, where she sta ...

, as well as contemporary composers such as

Jennifer Higdon Jennifer Elaine Higdon (born December 31, 1962) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. She has received many awards, including the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her Violin Concerto and three Grammy Award for Best Contempora ...

, Robert Maggio, and Harold Boatrite. Sung has recorded for

Naxos Records Naxos comprises numerous companies, divisions, imprints, and labels specializing in classical music but also audiobooks and other genres. The premier label is Naxos Records which focuses on classical music. Naxos Musical Group encompasses about 1 ...

, Albany Records, Vox, Biddulph, I Virtuosi, CRI, and Avie labels. Sung has been an advocate for utilizing cutting-edge technologies to enhance the artistry of the classical musician. He developed a customized database to create a paperless office for his administrative work at Curtis. In 2002, shortly after the first Tablet PC's were introduced by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

to the public, Sung adapted an early model for use as a digital music score reader with a foot pedal-activated page turning system. Currently, he is experimenting with live visualization techniques using programs such as Liquid Media and particle generators such as particleIllusion in a framework called the Visual Recital.

Discography

* * * * * *

References

External links

Sung's biography at Naxos music label

Hugh Sung's official website

Sung's journal of projects for the Visual Recital concept

Sung's video podcast series highlighting tech for musicians and interviews with prominent artists in the Classical Music field

* https://web.archive.org/web/20110312184611/http://www.pianoforum.it/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.cgi?board=INTERNAZIONALI * http://www.pianoforum.it/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.cgi?num=1302232938 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sung, Hugh American classical pianists Male classical pianists American male pianists Musicians from Philadelphia Living people American classical musicians of Korean descent 1968 births Curtis Institute of Music alumni 20th-century American pianists Classical musicians from Pennsylvania 21st-century classical pianists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century American pianists