Benjamin Sung, Violinist

Assistant Professor of Violin at Florida State University, violinist Benjamin Sung is also concertmaster of the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra.  Recent concert highlights include the 2012 Brevard Music Festival; XIII Festival y Academia del Nuevo Mundo in Maracaibo, Venezuela; the Cuban premiere of the Schnittke Concerto Grosso No. 1 and the Estaciones Portenas by Piazzolla; and a collaboration with the James Sewell Ballet for the opening of the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts in Minneapolis. His 2012-13 calendar includes recitals and masterclasses at the University of Georgia, Lawrence Conservatory, and the University of Louisville; performances at the FSU John Cage Centennial Celebration and 2013 Festival of New Music; and the release of an album of new American music on Albany Records, supported by a Recording Grant from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music.

Sung has performed as soloist with numerous orchestras, such as the Camerata Romeu of Havana, Cuba, the Virtuosi of Festival Internacionale de Musica in Recife, Brazil, and the National Repertory Orchestra.  He is a past winner of the Starling Award of the Eastman School of Music and the Violin Fellowship of the Montgomery Symphony, and received the Gladys Gingold Scholarship at Indiana University. An enthusiastic advocate of contemporary music, Sung has recorded the music of composers Steve Rouse and Marc Satterwhite for Centaur Records, recently sat on the jury for the 2011 Martirano Award of the University of Illinois, and has worked with many of the greatest composers of this generation, including John Adams, Pierre Boulez, George Crumb, and Helmut Lachenmann.  His work as a teacher includes masterclasses and lectures at Bravo! Music Festival at the University of Minnesota, Festival Inverno de Garanhuns, Brazil, and Seoul National University.

Sung holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Oleh Krysa, and Master’s and Doctorate degrees from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, from the studio of Nelli Shkolnikova. Sung also studied at the Professional Training Program at Carnegie Hall, the Lucerne Festival Academy, the New York String Seminar, and the Chamber Music Residency at The Banff Centre. Benjamin lives with his wife Jihye in Tallahassee, Florida, where he enjoys running, playing pool, and everything that comes out of Jihye’s kitchen.