Korean-American pianist Hyunjung Rachel Chung is celebrated for her multifaceted career as a performer, educator, adjudicator, recording artist, and composer. A first-prize winner of the Ernest Bacon Award from the 2020 American Prize, she made her New York solo debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in 1996 as a winner of the Artist International Audition. Since then, she has performed extensively both nationally and internationally in solo and collaborative settings.
Dr. Chung has appeared as a performer, presenter, and master teacher at numerous festivals and conferences, including the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy (NCKP), 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 the Piano at Peabody Workshop.
A dedicated advocate for contemporary music and historically marginalized voices, Chung has released 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). Her 2022 album, Burleigh, Coleridge-Taylor & Dett: Piano Suites, was awarded a Gold Star in the Best Piano Solo CD category at the Music & Stars Awards. In addition, she recently completed a modern engraving of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges’s Piano Sonata and Rondo in C major, now available through IMSLP, contributing to the broader revival of underrepresented works in classical music.
Dr. Chung is deeply committed to interdisciplinary art. She actively collaborates in interdisciplinary productions and has performed with the Atlanta Ballet as a guest pianist. As a composer and performer, she created Three Korean Sketches on Saeya Saeya Parang Saeya for artist Moon Jung-Joo’s exhibition bLuE bLuE bLuE, exploring innovative intersections of music and visual art.
From 2014 to 2019, she was a member of the Eureka Duo, presenting chamber music by women composers. She also frequently shares the stage with her husband, tenor Dr. Sungbae Kim.
Chung is Professor of Music and Chair of the Department of Music at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, where she has taught since 2006. She also serves as Director of the Spelman Chamber Players. In recognition of her outstanding teaching, she received Steinway & Sons’ Top Music Teacher Award in both 2020 and 2022. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Seoul National University, a Master of Music and a Professional Study Diploma from the Mannes College of Music, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Her principal teachers have included Kwi Hyun Kim, Arkady Aronov, Boris Slutsky, Theodore Lettvin, and Susan Starr.
