Guest Piano Performance - Dr. Jihye Chang Sung - 11/16/2025

The Idyllwild Arts Academy Department of Music Presents
Dr. Jihye Chang Sung, Piano November 16, 2025
2:00pm | Lowman Concert Hall

Arirang Rhapsody (2006)
Jisoo Lee (b. 1981)
arr. Jihye Chang Sung

“Arirang” from Three Miniatures for Solo Piano (2003/2024)
Kay Rhie (b. 1971)

“Buddhist Dance” from Korean Dance Suite (1998)
Youngjo Lee (b. 1943)

Silver Bells! (2023, written for Jihye Chang Sung)
Sungji Hong (b. 1973)

Prélude XXV, “le miroir dans l’eau” (2017)
Uzong Choe (b. 1968)

Etude N. 4, “Scalen” (1995)
Unsuk Chin (b. 1961)

Nam-Ok Lee (2021, written for Jihye Chang Sung)
Eun Young Lee (b. 1967)

Chorale Fantasy No. 4, “Ein feste ist unser Gott”
(2018, written for Jihye Chang Sung)
Shinuh Lee (b. 1969)

Co.Ko. – un poco loco (2017)
Texu Kim (b. 1980)
I. Sangietto
II. Emperor of Ballads
III. Jingle Up!

Jihye Chang enjoys a diverse career as a soloist, collaborator, educator, and advocate for new music in the United States and abroad. Her performances focus on the creative process of curating programs that connect to various audiences, collaborating with living composers, and giving context to contemporary works.

She is a recipient of the Henry Kohn Award from the Tanglewood Music Center, the first prize of the Mikhashoff International Pianist-Composer Competition, an Honorary Fellowship from the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, and the Aaron Copland Recording Grant. She has appeared as a soloist with the Brevard Music Center Sinfonietta, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Fargo Moorhead Symphony Orchestra, Wonju Philharmonic Orchestra (South Korea), Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, and Virtuosi of Festival Internacionale de Musica in Recife (Brazil), among others. She recently premiered Igerthi, a piano concerto written for her by Sungji Hong, with Intersection Music in Nashville and performed it again with Polymorphia Ensemble at Florida State University.

Since 2016 she has led a collaborative project called “Continuum 88,” in which she focuses each concert season on a different genre of the piano repertoire such as sonatas, etudes, and variations, programming masterworks of the literature alongside newly commissioned works by younger composers in the same genres. 9 new works have been created by composers of diverse background and styles, and she has led more than 20 performances in venues across the United States, South Korea, and Taiwan. 2023 was a replay season of miniatures, etudes, variations, and fantasies. 2024 – 2025 focused on sonatas and 2025-2026 will be a replay season of etudes and fantasies.


Piano etudes have been an important part of her projects, and she has given recitals and lectures on this topic at various institutions and festivals. She has led a hugely successful collaboration project, ““BMC Etude Project,” with the Brevard composition and piano areas since 2017 and helped more than 100 piano students to premiere newly written etudes. She has also led numerous workshops on this subject with young composers. Her most recent etude related project is “Boston Etudes,” which started during the pandemic year in 2020 with 8 composers based in Boston. 8 new etudes were written for Chang and she premiered them in live stream performances on her YouTube Channel throughout 2021. She went on to record them in 2022 and they were released in October 2024 on New Focus Recordings, with 5 star review from the Fanfares magazine.


As a chamber musician she has collaborated with musicians from across the states including Cheeyun, Jordan Bak, Andrés Cardenes, Andrés Diaz, Inbal Segev, and Richard Young, and has appeared at the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth, Blue Candlelight Music Series in Dallas, Broman Series at Mary Baldwin University, Parker Concert Series in Brevard, and Artists Series of Tallahassee. She also specializes in working with young composers in academic settings and has recently led residencies at Indiana University, UCLA, Tufts University, Rutgers University, Seoul National University, Boston Conservatory, Texas Christian University, and Tulane University.

Chang graduated summa cum laude from Seoul National University and earned her Master’s and Doctorate degrees from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, under the tutelage of the late György Sebök, Edward Auer, and Reiko Neriki. She joined the esteemed piano faculty of Boston University as a Senior Lecturer in Fall 2024, after serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Florida State University. Chang is also a faculty member at the Brevard Music Center and directed Piano Intensive Bulgaria for 2023 and 2024. You can visit   / jihyechangpiano   to see her passion for espresso, and listen to her online premieres and other performances on    / jihyechangpiano  . Her recordings can be found on Albany, Centaur, Parma, and Sony Korea.