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Lisa Sung, piano
Lisa Sung is an award-winning versatile classical, jazz, and collaborative pianist, composer, and educator whose work bridges cultures through the language of jazz. In 2022, she received the prestigious John Stites Jazz Award for Artistic Development, supporting her ongoing exploration of world musical traditions within jazz contexts.
Lisa has performed and recorded with renowned jazz artists including Terell Stafford, Rodney Whitaker, Ron McClure, Stafford Hunter, Rob Smith, Diego Rivera, and Dmitri Metheny. Her debut album, Half Moon, reimagines traditional Korean children's songs through the harmonic and improvisational language of jazz. Her second album, Dari Sabang, continues this global dialogue by interpreting Indonesian folk melodies within a jazz idiom.
In addition to her jazz career, Lisa is a highly experienced classical and collaborative pianist. She has served as an accompanist for theater productions and voice studios at Calvin University and Hope College, and has accompanied choirs in performances throughout the world. Her collaborative work spans classical, choral, theatrical, and contemporary settings.
Lisa currently serves as an adjunct professor at Calvin University and Aquinas College, where she directs the Calvin Jazz Band and co-directs the Gospel Choir. She is also an active clinician, having given masterclasses at universities in South Korea, Indonesia, and Vietnam, focusing on jazz performance, improvisation, and cross-cultural collaboration.
In Fall 2024, Lisa began her Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in Jazz Performance and Contemporary Composition at the University of Michigan, where she was awarded the Rackham Merit Fellowship for academic excellence and artistic vision. In January 2025, she received the Presidential Graduate Fellowship in recognition of her groundbreaking musical collaboration with a Korean Pansori singer.
Lisa holds a Bachelor of Music from Temple University, where she studied with Terell Stafford and Thomas Lawton, and a Master of Music from New York University, where her mentors included Ron McClure and Don Friedman.
With the support of the John Stites Jazz Award, Lisa has toured internationally throughout Indonesia, South Korea, and Vietnam, sharing her cross-cultural jazz work on national stages and broadcasts. Her Lisa Sung Trio was featured on CNN Indonesia, and her quartet's performance of Vietnamese children's songs was showcased at the First International Jazz Festival in Nha Trang, airing nationally. She will continue her international work with upcoming tours in the Philippines and Brazil in 2026.
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