Speaker Series: Jihye Chang Sung

Jihye Chang Sung enjoys a dynamic career as a soloist, collaborator, educator, and champion of new music, captivating audiences across the United States and internationally. She is known for thoughtfully curated programs that bridge musical traditions, collaborating with living composers, and bringing fresh perspectives to both contemporary and classical repertoire.

A recipient of the Henry Kohn Award from the Tanglewood Music Center, first prize in the Mikhashoff International Pianist-Composer Competition, an Honorary Fellowship from the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, and the Aaron Copland Recording Grant, Chang has performed as a soloist with the Brevard Music Center Sinfonietta, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra, Wonju Philharmonic Orchestra (South Korea), Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, and Virtuosi of the Festival Internacional de Música in Recife (Brazil), among others. She recently premiered Igerthi, a piano concerto written for her by Sungji Hong, with Intersection Music in Nashville and later performed it with Polymorphia Ensemble. Her recordings can be found on Albany, Centaur, Parma, and Sony Korea.

Since 2016 she has led Continuum 88, a collaborative project that dedicates each concert season to a specific genre of piano repertoire—such as sonatas, etudes, and variations—interweaving masterworks of the piano literature with newly commissioned works by emerging composers. To date the project has resulted in ten new works by composers of diverse backgrounds and styles and more than twenty performances in the United States, South Korea, and Taiwan. Recent seasons revisited miniatures, etudes, variations, and fantasies (2023), explored sonatas (2024–2025), etudes and fantasies (2025–2026), and sonatas and fantasies (2026 – 2027).

Etudes have been central to Chang’s artistic work. She has presented recitals and lectures on the subject at major institutions and festivals and has directed the widely acclaimed BMC Etude Project at the Brevard Music Center since 2016. This initiative has facilitated the creation of more than hundred new etudes and provided young pianists with opportunities to work with the composers and premiere them. Her most recent project is Boston Etudes, a collaboration with eight Boston-based composers. She premiered the works in a livestreamed series on her YouTube channel in 2021, recorded them in 2022, and released the album on New Focus Recordings in October 2024. The recording received a five-star review in Fanfare, which praised her as “the perfect vehicle for so many diverse ideas,” noting her “faultless technique and genuine sense of presence.