Celebrated for being the first prize winner of the Ernest Bacon Award of the 2020 American Prize, Korean-American pianist Hyunjung Rachel Chung has paved a multifaceted path as a performer, educator, adjudicator, recording artist, and avocational composer. She made her New York solo debut at Carnegie Hall Weill Recital Hall in 1996 as a winner of the Artist International Audition. Since then, her solo and collaborative recitals have taken her throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. She has appeared as a performer, presenter, and master teacher in many conferences and music festivals including World Piano Teachers Association Concert Series, National Music Teachers Association National Conference, College Music Society International Conference, San Giacomo Festival in Bologna, Grumo Festival, Forty Fingers–Manifestazione Pianistica Internazionale in Rome, South Carolina Chamber Music Festival, Arioso Musica Domani International Composition Prize, and Piano at Peabody Workshop.
Dedicated to the music of our time as well as the neglected and forgotten music, she has performed and recorded various piano solo works by women composers in her two award-winning albums on the Studio Jeeb label: My Cherished Garden: Piano Works by American Women Composers (2017) and Three Piano Sonatas by Women Composers (2018). Additionally, her most recent album Burleigh, Coleridge-Taylor & Dett: Piano Suites (2022) won a Gold Star in the Best Piano Solo CD category at the Music & Stars Awards. As a collaborative pianist, she performed as a member of the Eureka Duo from 2014 to 2019 to present chamber music written by women composers. Also, she has frequently shared a stage with her husband and a tenor Dr. Sungbae Kim.
Chung is an associate professor and the Chair of the Department of Music at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia where she has been teaching since 2006. Steinway & Sons recognized her outstanding endeavors with the 2020 and 2022 Top Music Teacher Award. Chung earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from Seoul National University, a Master of Music degree and a Professional Study Diploma from the Mannes College of Music, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Her principal teachers include Kwi Hyun Kim, Arkady Aronov, Boris Slutsky, Theodore Lettvin, and Susan Starr.
