Hailed by The Strad for her “compelling” performances and “ravishing tone”, violinist Janet Sung enjoys an acclaimed international career, recognized for her exhilarating performances and signature lustrous, burnished tone. Her playing possesses the rare blend of fierce intelligence, subtlety, and brilliant virtuosity.
Since her orchestral debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony at age 9, she has performed with leading orchestras worldwide. Recent seasons have seen her as a soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Göttinger Symphonie Orchester, Pusan Philharmonic (South Korea), Omsk Philharmonic Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Cairo Symphony Orchestra (Egypt), the Aspen Festival Chamber Symphony and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, as well as the orchestras of Boise, Delaware, Dubuque, Fargo-Moorhead, Hartford, Las Cruces, Tacoma, and Wyoming, amongst others across the U.S.
Ms. Sung has been heard as a concerto and recital soloist at distinguished festivals, including Switzerland’s Lucerne Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Bellingham Festival, Peninsula Music Festival, Britt Festival, Hot Springs Music Festival, Sewanee Summer Music Festival, and the Conciertos de La Villa Festival de Santo Domingo. In recitals, she has been presented in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Louisville, New York City, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis, as well as in Odense, Denmark, Lausanne, Switzerland and Queenstown, New Zealand, and Jiangyin, China. A prolific chamber artist, Ms. Sung has performed at the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Kreeger Chamber Music Festival in Washington, D.C., the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, and the Newport Music Festival, and is a regular guest with the Finger Lakes Chamber Ensemble and the American Chamber Players. She is also the Founder and Artistic Director of Chamber Music Chicago.
An artist of remarkable versatility, Ms. Sung is celebrated for her compelling performances of traditional works from Bach to Berg, and is passionate about promoting works of the 20th and 21st centuries. In recent years, she has performed repertoire as diverse as Henri Dutilleux’s Violin Concerto, L’Arbes des Songes, Jennifer Higdon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Violin Concerto (2008), and Astor Piazzolla’s Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas. Ms. Sung has also presented the world premieres of Kenneth Fuchs’ American Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra, Augusta Read Thomas’ Double Helix, which was recently released on Nimbus Records, and Kenneth Hesketh’s Inscription/Transformation for Violin and Orchestra in Germany. A new Violin Concerto No. 4 by Augusta Read Thomas has been commissioned for her.
Her solo performances have frequently been aired on radio and television, nationally and internationally, including multiple broadcasts of her performance of Korngold’s Violin Concerto on NPR’s “Performance Today,” and regular performances on Chicago’s Classical WFMT. She has recorded Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No.1, the latter with members of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, as well as music by Britten, Enescu, Ravel, and living composers Augusta Read Thomas, Kenneth Hesketh, Missy Mazzoli, Dan Visconti and Gabriel Prokofiev. Her most recent recordings, Edge of Youth, released on Sono Luminus, and The deeper the blue…, released on SOMM Recordings (UK) and recorded with the Britten Sinfonia and conductor Jac van Steen, were both critically acclaimed in major publications such as The Strad, Strings Magazine, and BBC Music Magazine.
Janet Sung was chosen by Leonard Slatkin as the recipient of the prestigious Passamaneck Award. She has also toured throughout the United States with fiddler Mark O’Connor’s American String Celebration, showcased in performances of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen, and original compositions by O’Connor.
Ms. Sung studied with legendary pedagogues Josef Gingold, with whom she started studying at age ten, and Dorothy Delay. She graduated from Harvard University with a double degree in anthropology and music, as well as The Juilliard School. As a highly sought-after artist-teacher, Ms. Sung regularly conducts master classes at conservatories throughout the U.S. and abroad. In 2004, she was invited as a Clifton Visiting Artist at Harvard. She is currently Head of Strings and Violin Professor at the DePaul University School of Music.
Janet Sung plays a c.1600 Maggini violin crafted in Brescia, Italy.