History

Sung is a native of Houston, Texas

Houston, Texas

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...

. Her musical life began with classical piano and violin. She attended Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts

High School for the Performing and Visual Arts

The High School for the Performing and Visual Arts is a secondary school located at 4001 Stanford Street in the Montrose 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

University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...

. She first heard jazz music during that time. In 1995 she was accepted into the inaugural class of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance at the New England Conservatory of Music

New England Conservatory of Music

The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, is the oldest independent school of music in the United States.The conservatory is home each year to 750 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies along with 1400 more in its Preparatory School as well as the School of...

. After graduating in 1997 Sung briefly joined the Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 area jazz scene before moving to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, where she currently resides.

Biography

"Jazz pianist Helen Sung and her trio took a capacity Fontana Chamber Arts crowd for a ride that patrons won’t soon forget. Sung let listeners into her world: a place of passion, adventure and drama bound by even and odd musical notes and truckloads of rhythm.” –Alex Nixon, Kalamazoo Gazette

Sung has been called “one of the brightest emerging stars in jazz today.” As an Asian-American artist and composer, she challenges stereotypes with a compelling, unique voice informed by her virtuosity in classical, jazz, and popular music.

A native of Houston, Texas, Sung attended Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA). She initially aspired to be a classical pianist but was bitten by the jazz bug (specifically by Tommy Flanagan

Tommy Flanagan

Thomas Lee Flanagan was an American jazz pianist born in Detroit, Michigan, particularly remembered for his work with Ella Fitzgerald...

’s solo on Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker

Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....

’s composition Confirmation) while studying at the University of Texas at Austin

University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...

. Going against both her musical and cultural upbringing, she switched to jazz and was soon after accepted into the inaugural class of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance (then at Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music

New England Conservatory of Music

The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, is the oldest independent school of music in the United States.The conservatory is home each year to 750 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies along with 1400 more in its Preparatory School as well as the School of...

).

An intensive program accepting only seven students (forming a jazz septet), the Institute proved to be an unprecedented opportunity to study and perform with some of the greatest masters of jazz music: Clark Terry

Clark Terry

Clark Terry is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award...

, Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...

, Jimmy Heath

Jimmy Heath

James Edward Heath , nicknamed Little Bird, is an American jazz saxophonist, composer and arranger. He is the brother of bassist Percy Heath and drummer Albert Heath.-Biography:...

, Jackie McLean

Jackie McLean

John Lenwood McLean was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader and educator, born in New York City.-Biography:McLean's father, John Sr., played guitar in Tiny Bradshaw's orchestra...

, Bobby Watson

Bobby Watson

Bobby Watson is an American post-bop jazz alto saxophonist, composer, producer, and educator. Watson now has 26 recordings as a leader. He appears on nearly 100 other recordings as either co-leader or in a supporting role...

, Harry "Sweets" Edison

Sweets Edison

Harry "Sweets" Edison , born in Columbus, Ohio, was an American jazz trumpeter and member of the Count Basie Orchestra.-Biography:He spent his early childhood in Kentucky, where he was introduced to music by an uncle...

, James Moody

James Moody (saxophonist)

James Moody was an American jazz saxophone and flute player. He was best known for his hit "Moody's Mood for Love," an improvisation based on "I'm in the Mood for Love"; in performance, he often improvised vocals for the tune.-Biography:James Moody was born in Savannah, Georgia...

, Ron Carter

Ron Carter

Ron Carter is an American jazz double-bassist. His appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar. Carter is also an acclaimed cellist who has recorded numerous times on that...

 (artistic director of the program), Barry Harris

Barry Harris

Barry Doyle Harris is an American bebop jazz pianist and educator.-Biography:Harris left Detroit for New York City in 1960...

, David Baker, Slide Hampton

Slide Hampton

Locksley Wellington "Slide" Hampton is an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger.He was a 1998 Grammy Award winner for "Best Jazz Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist", as arranger for "Cotton Tail" performed by Dee Dee Bridgewater...

, Lewis Nash

Lewis Nash

Lewis Nash is an American jazz drummer. According to Modern Drummer magazine, Nash has one of the longest discographies in jazz. and has played on over 400 records by musicians, earning him the honor of being named Jazz's Most Valuable Player by the magazine in it's May, 2009 issue...

, Jon Faddis

Jon Faddis

Jon Faddis is an American jazz trumpet player, conductor, composer, and educator renowned for both his highly virtuosic command of the instrument and for his expertise in the field of music education...

, Curtis Fuller

Curtis Fuller

Curtis DuBois Fuller is an American jazz trombonist, known as a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and contributor to many classic jazz recordings.-Biography:...

, Albert "Tootie" Heath, Bennie Maupin

Bennie Maupin

Bennie Maupin is a Detroit Michigan jazz multireedist. He performs on various saxophones, flute and bass clarinet.He is probably best known for his participation in Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi sextet and Headhunters band, and for performing on Miles Davis's seminal fusion record, Bitches Brew...

, and Sir Roland Hanna. They performed at the Kennedy Center, and toured India and Thailand with Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock

Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

 and Wayne Shorter

Wayne Shorter

Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...

. Personal highlights of Sung’s time in Boston include presenting a jazz workshop with the late, acclaimed bassist Ray Brown

Ray Brown (musician)

Raymond Matthews Brown was an American jazz double bassist.-Biography:Ray Brown was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and had piano lessons from the age of eight. After noticing how many pianists attended his high school, he thought of taking up the trombone, but was unable to afford one...

, performing at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival

Tanglewood Jazz Festival

The Tanglewood Jazz Festival, is a summer music festival, featuring contemporary jazz artists. It is held every year on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of Labor Day weekend, in Lenox, Massachusetts...

, and feature television spots.

Sung has worked with Clark Terry, Slide Hampton

Slide Hampton

Locksley Wellington "Slide" Hampton is an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger.He was a 1998 Grammy Award winner for "Best Jazz Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist", as arranger for "Cotton Tail" performed by Dee Dee Bridgewater...

, Ron Carter

Ron Carter

Ron Carter is an American jazz double-bassist. His appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar. Carter is also an acclaimed cellist who has recorded numerous times on that...

, Jon Faddis

Jon Faddis

Jon Faddis is an American jazz trumpet player, conductor, composer, and educator renowned for both his highly virtuosic command of the instrument and for his expertise in the field of music education...

, Wayne Shorter

Wayne Shorter

Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...

, Steve Turre

Steve Turre

Steve Turre is a trombonist, recording artist, arranger, and educator. In 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2006 he won the Down Beat Reader's Poll for best trombonist....

, T.S.Monk

T. S. Monk

T. S. Monk is an American jazz drummer, composer and bandleader. He is the son of fellow jazz musician, Thelonious Monk.-Biography:...

, Terri Lyne Carrington

Terri Lyne Carrington

Terri Lyne Carrington is a jazz drummer, composer, record producer and entrepreneur. She has played with jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Clark Terry, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Joe Sample, Al Jarreau, Yellowjackets, and many more...

, and MacArthur Fellow Regina Carter

Regina Carter

Regina Carter is an American jazz violinist. She is the cousin of famous jazz saxophonist James Carter.-Early life:...

. She frequently appears with the Mingus Big Band

Mingus Big Band

The Mingus Big Band is an ensemble, based in New York City, that specializes in the compositions of the late Charles Mingus. It is managed by his widow, Sue Mingus and represented by Tree Lawn Artists, Inc.. In addition to its weekly Monday night appearance at the Jazz Standard in New York City,...

 and was a featured performer on PBS’ 'In Performance at the White House' for the Monk Institute

Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz

The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz is a non-profit music education-oriented organization co-founded in 1986 by the family of the late American jazz musician Thelonious Monk, opera singer Maria Fisher and Thomas R...

’s 20th Anniversary Celebration in 2006.

As bandleader, Sung has performed on Marian McPartland

Marian McPartland

Margaret Marian McPartland, OBE is an English-born jazz pianist, composer, writer, and the host of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on National Public Radio, NPR.-Early life:...

’s acclaimed Piano Jazz

Piano Jazz

Piano Jazz is a weekly one hour radio show produced and distributed by National Public Radio. It began on June 4, 1978 and has always been hosted by jazz pianist Marian McPartland. It is the longest running cultural program on NPR. The show features a single guest, and usually consists of about an...

show, NPR

NPR

NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...

’s JazzSet w/DeeDee Bridgewater, and XM Radio’s In the Swing Seat w/Wynton Marsalis. Sung has feature print pieces in such publications as Downbeat

Downbeat

Downbeat, down beat or Down Beat may refer to:*Downbeat, the first beat of a measure in music. This terms originated from orchestral conducting, where the lowest point on the baton signals the first downbeat in a given measure...

, JazzTimes

JazzTimes

JazzTimes is a magazine that dates back to Radio Free Jazz, a publication founded in 1970 by Ira Sabin when he was operating a record store in Washington, DC. It was originally a newsletter designed to update shoppers on the latest jazz releases and provide jazz radio programmers with a means of...

, Keyboard, JazzIz, and AllAboutJazz. Her band has headlined at the Fontana Chamber Arts Summer Festival, Kalisz International Jazz Piano Festival, the Kennedy Center’s Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival, Clifford Brown Jazz Festival

Clifford Brown Jazz Festival

The Clifford Brown Jazz Festival is a free jazz music festival held annually in June at Rodney Square in Wilmington, Delaware. The first festival was held in 1989 on the open lawn in the center of the city, and has grown into the largest free jazz festival on the East Coast...

, Vermont Mozart Festival

Vermont Mozart Festival

The Vermont Mozart Festival was a series of indoor and outdoor concerts presented annually at sites throughout the state of Vermont. The inaugural Festival of 1974 was conceived as a celebration of both the natural beauty of the state and the genius of the Festival's namesake, composer Wolfgang...

, Jazz Lucca Donna Festival (Italy), Tri-C Jazz Festival (Cleveland), Jazz Festival Bern, the American Jazz Museum’s ‘Blue Room,’ The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and New York City’s finest jazz venues.

Her CD Helenistique was praised as “…one of the year’s most exciting listens” (JazzTimes); and Sungbird after Albéniz, a jazz-classical adventure, was hailed “a real winner” (All About Jazz), a “seamless recording in which one composer’s contributions complement the other’s.” (BillBoard). Her project NuGenerations toured southern Africa (Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Namibia, and South Africa) as a 2009 US State Department-Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad ensemble.

Her rich experience at the Monk Institute inspires her to stay involved with music education through working with arts organizations and conducting workshops and clinics. Sung was also a recipient of a Chamber Music America/Doris Duke Foundation Grant enabling her to conduct a jazz residency program for underserved youth in Camden, NJ.

Notable

• 2010 NYCSpaces/Con Edison Composer-in-Residence at Flushing Town Hall
• 2010 Artist Presenter and Panelist at Aspen Ideas Festival
• 2009 U.S. State Department-Rhythm Road
  The Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad
  The Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad is a $1.5 million per annum cultural exchange program for musicians sponsored in part by the United States State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. This program is in partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center...
  
  "American Music Abroad" Ensemble
• Winner of Kennedy Center 2007 Mary Lou Williams Competition
• Recipient of a 2006 Chamber Music America/Doris Duke Foundation grant

Discography

• ONLINE ONLY - Live At The Blue Note
• 2004 - PUSH (Fresh Sound New Talent Records)
• 2006 - Helenistique (Fresh Sound New Talent Records)

  Greg Tardy's The Truth

• 2007 - Sungbird (after Albeniz) (Sunnyside Records)
• 2008 - Richie Goods & Nuclear Fusion's Live at the Zinc Bar
• 2009 - Brother Thelonious Quintet's Brother Thelonious

  Lonnie Plaxico's Ancestral Devotion

• 2010 - "Going Express" (Sunnyside Records) CD Preview

Website

• helensung.com