Winner of the Kennedy Center’s Mary Lou Williams Jazz Piano Competition and named by Wynton Marsalis as one of his 2011 “Who’s Got Next: Jazz Musicians to Watch,” pianist-composer Helen Sung is blazing her own path – as an Asian-American artist, she bridges diverse worlds with a singular vision and sound. A native of Houston, Texas, and graduate of its renownedHigh School for the Performing and Visual Arts(HSPVA), Sung was an aspiring classical pianist at the University of Texas at Austin before a “Tommy Flanagan solo changed everything”. She went on to graduate from the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance at the New England Conservatory in Boston. She has gone on to work with such jazz luminaries as Clark Terry, Slide Hampton, Ron Carter, Jon Faddis, Wayne Shorter, and MacArthur Fellow Regina Carter. In addition to her own band, Sung can currently be seen with fine ensembles including the Mingus Big Band & Mingus Dynasty, T.S.Monk Band, and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington’s Grammy-winning Mosaic Project. Sung has been featured on Marian McPartland’s celebrated Piano Jazz program and in such publications as Downbeat, JazzTimes, and Keyboard. With acclaimed debuts at the Detroit International Jazz Festival, the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Aspen Institute Ideas Festival, Seattle’s Earshot Festival; Fontana Chamber Arts Summer Festival; and the Kennedy Center’s Mary Lou Williams Festival; she is also claiming a place on the international stage: her trio was featured at the Kalisz International Jazz Piano Festival and Jazz Lucca Donna Festival, and her NuGenerations project toured southern Africa as a 2009 US State Department-Rhythm Road Jazz Ambassador. Now based in New York City, this exceptional artist is enchanting listeners everywhere: her music swings, it’s funky, intelligent, and also has the elegant textures & dazzling technique of her classical background. Sung incorporates the influences of the masters in an utterly unique way, creating imaginative, modern music that thoroughly captivates.