The New PATCO Freedom Card (Finally!!)

After over a year of waiting, the new PATCO Freedom Train Pass smartcard is finally available for general purchase! The steep rise in gas prices last year turned me into an avid PATCO rider. The trains themselves are older models that run just fine, but the fare collection system hasn't aged nearly as well - old-fashioned magnetic swipe cards that frequently get rendered useless by accidental proximity to electronic gadgets (like my Curtis optical ID/entrance card) and antiquated ticket dispensing machines that require you to feed the coins with the care and precision of a skee ball match. Having ridden the uber-efficient train systems in Korea several years ago and envying the way most riders just tapped an open turnstile with smart cards tucked in outer wallet pockets made me wonder time and again why we didn't have a similar system here in the ol' US of A. Well, now that wait finally seems to be over. Cards can be purchased at the Broadway Transportation Center in Camden. The folks there were very helpful and even gave a personal demonstration on how to use the new ticket dispensing machines which can either give you 3-day paper magnet passes, or can be used to 'recharge' your Freedom smart card. I opted for the automatic withdrawal from my debit card, which will recharge the card in $30 increments (or more, if you decide) once the card's balance reaches $5. No more penny arcade ticket machines, no more change dispensers that spit my old dollar bills back out, no more waiting in long queues for 10-ride tickets at the human ticket window (only open at certain hours of the day) - my Freedom card has me actually excited to ride the train now!

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A Sure-Fire Way to becoming a Millionaire Musician

The other day, during a chamber music rehearsal, some of the students starting talking about one of Curtis' hotshot pianists who is currently enjoying a fantastic international solo career with one of the industry's highest-octane managements. Evidently, this person has an obsession with clothes shopping, buying hats like Amelda Marcos bought shoes, and even racked up an $800 cell phone bill at one point. The kids sighed and pined that it must be nice to have such a career to be able to afford that kind of lifestyle. At this point, my Dave Ramsey-indoctrinated motor-mouth kicked in, pointing out that if this person didn't get a hold of their finances immediately, they would be soon spending their way into fiscal - and professional - oblivion. I can't think of a single music student that doesn't have the starry-eyed dream of winning a major orchestra job, or being picked up by a big management for a superstar solo career, thinking that such a move would be the answer to all their financial dreams forever-and-ever-amen. But with ever increasing numbers on the classical music "supply" end of the chain and diminishing "demands" on the other, winning major jobs and getting major management is becoming more and more akin to winning the mega-million lottery. Even the folks who are enjoying careers in the big orchestras (and i know several) will attest that most of them are up to their eyeballs in debt, and that orchestra life is akin to working in a Dilbert-esque cubicle, with conductors for "bosses" (shudder). On the other hand, few people see the un-glamorous side of touring as a soloist: running like crazy through airports to catch connecting flights (or waiting for delayed ones), dealing with late or missing baggage, holing up in miserable hotels, ordering Chinese food or Chef-Boyardee cans for affordable meals between concerts, wondering how in the world one is supposed to come away with anything after travel expenses, lodging, food, taxes, and management take their bites out of paltry artist fees. Rather than pin all one's hopes and dreams on winning pie-in-the-sky jobs that don't actually pay that much, i proposed to the students that they begin thinking about sound financial principles, like spending less than they earn, staying away from credit cards, and investing 15% of their income into growth financial products like mutual funds. According to Dave Ramsey, the average family income in America today is $40,000 per year. I'm going to borrow one of his financial examples and have a little fun breaking that down into terms an average musician can work with, one that doesn't enjoy a big orchestra job or a major solo (or chamber ensemble) career. $40,000/year breaks down to about $3,333 per month. If i were to offer private lessons at $40 per lesson, i would need to teach 83 lessons per month, or about 20-21 lessons per week - roughly 4-5 lessons a day, and that's leaving my weekends completely free! Even if i were to be more modest with my lesson fee - say, teaching at only $25 per lesson, i would only need to teach 33 lessons per week - the extra 13 lesson load could easily be added onto a Saturday (the most popular teaching day for musicians, btw), or spread out so that weekdays have 5 lessons each and Saturdays would only have to have 8. $40,000 doesn't sound like a lot, i know...but hold on. Let's say i'm really good about staying away from debt and have the discipline to invest 15% of that income into good mutual funds which average a 12% rate of return over the long haul, starting from the age of 20 fresh out of Curtis - i mean, college. 15% of $40,000 is $6,000 per year, or a monthly withdrawal of only $500 ($125 per week, if you want an even smaller breakdown). With the magic of compound interest (and using a cool online compound interest calculator from www.monkeychimp.com), we can see that even if this poor musician never has another student added to his teaching load - even if he never wins that fabled job, or get recognized for his amazing talent by IMG - if he can maintain his investing discipline, by the time this person is ready to retire at age 65, his investment nest egg will be worth $10,111,231.44. Let me repeat that number: Age 65 = $10,111,231.44. Ok, so you know that most musicians tend to hang around and teach way past the age of 65 - average cut off age tends to be 80. At age 80, with no significant career improvement and no increase in teaching fees, this musician will then be worth $55,595,009.88. Let me repeat. $55,595,009.88. No orchestra job, no solo career, no platinum records breaking all sales records. Just a humble teacher, teaching a handful of students each week, being wise with his money and disciplined with his savings and investments. For a more humble look at just making your first million, you would be 46 years old with $1,124,484.47. Yes, i'm really kicking myself for not having known this when i was a 20-year old fresh out of Curtis. But there's no better time to start like the present!

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Chopin MP3's on AmieStreet.com

Pianist Hugh Sung has just made his first set of solo piano works by Chopin available for sale on Amie Street. Hugh Sung's renditions of the Waltz in A-flat major, Op. 69 No. 1, the Waltz in C-sharp minor, Op. 64 No. 2, and the "Raindrop" Prelude in D-flat major, Op. 28 No. 15 are not only lovely interpretations of popular classics, but they're also innovative given that they were performed on a revolutionary new piano simulation program called Pianoteq by Modartt. Unlike regular digital pianos that have a limited range of velocity and color capabilities, Pianoteq recreates virtually the entire range of physical phenomena from acoustic pianos, giving an unprecedented range of artistry and interpretive capabilities to a digital instrument. Hugh Sung exploits the amazing expressive range of the Pianoteq simulator in these exquisite works by Chopin with touch, shading, and nuanced pedaling effects.

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The Debt Snowball Avalancheth

Kyungmi picked up an amazing bonus from work today. Six months ago, i would've bolted for the nearest music store or eBay listing for Tablet PC's and snagged a few expensive toys - but now, after five months of working our Debt Snowball patiently, diligently, and intensely, my first thought was actually to use the windfall to knock out the second-to-last debt and take a huge bite out of the last remaining one, the home equity loan that threatened to become a new member of the family with its own bedroom! Now how's that for a change of heart? i'm re-reading the first article i wrote at the start of this financial fight for freedom, and i'm almost chuckling at the memory of the fear that swept over me when i realized just how big the financial hole was at the time:

I just finished the very first step of Dave's plan: writing out my first monthly budget. Even though all my finances are recorded in Quicken, this was still a very painful, brain-numbing exercise. Bad news is that the debt i tried so hard to ignore actually is turning out to be a much bigger troll under the bridge than i had realized...

...and now, fast forward to today, when i called the loan officer to pay off the balance early on our back windows' installation (real physical windows, not the blue-screen-of-death kind - last time we will EVER finance home improvements, btw!!) - what a pleasant surprise to learn that instead of the stated remaining balance of $5,805.85, the early payoff amount was actually only $3,274.27! i guess the larger amount was the balance if i kept paying minimum amounts for the remainder of the loan's life for the next 5 years or so, with the smaller amount reflecting the immediate savings sans accrued interest. Once i heard that, i fired up my Nuvi GPS and drove straight to their office to hand them a check and be done with this once and for all. The lady at the desk smiled as she printed out the payoff receipt and said, "If there's anything that we can do to help you finance something in the future - "

"NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!!!" i laughed, shaking my head and throwing up my hands in defense. "We're just about to start attacking our last big debt and plan to be completely debt free!! NO MORE DEBTS FOR US!!"

The lady did a double-take. i must've sounded like a cult zealot!

"Gee...that sounds like a good idea...", she said wistfully.

By the time this month is up, i hope to have put a mighty blow to the troll under our fiscal bridge - close to half of that monster will be hacked away right off the bat! With no other little debts diluting our financial muscle, we'll be able to throw everything we have to whittle that beast down fairly quickly. Incidentally, one of the most amazing things about this debt snowball has been seeing how money that once was so scarce is now virtually pouring in from all directions! Learning to set up a monthly budget has helped us put a tight reign on every single dollar that comes in, instead of having money flow through our fingers like loose sand. i might be overly optimistic, but perhaps in another 5 or 6 months (?) we might actually be done with ALL of our debts (except the house)...wow, i can almost smell that day coming!

Pianist Hugh Sung has been an active soloist and chamber musician ever since his debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of 11. Two years later, he was accepted for studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, where his principal teachers included Eleanor Sokoloff, Jorge Bolet, and Seymour Lipkin, along with Karen Tuttle and Felix Galimir for chamber music.

Throughout his studies and subsequent to graduating with a Bachelor of Music, Hugh Sung has performed in major cities throughout the Americas, England, Canada, South Africa, Japan, and Korea. Hugh Sung has been presented at some of the world's most prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall, Weill Hall, Wigmore Hall, The National Gallery of Art, and The Ravinia Festival. He has made several guest appearances at radio stations throughout New York City, Rochester, Philadelphia, and New Zealand, and was featured on NPR's nationally syndicated "Performance Today" performing works by Clementi, Ravel, and Mussorgksy. His concerto engagements have included performances with the Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, annual appearances with the Masterworks Festival Orchestras since 1998, and extensive tours with the South Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Most recently, he was presented on Japanese National Television NHK in collaboration with violinist Aaron Rosand during a recital in the esteemed Ouji Hall in the Ginza district of Tokyo.

In addition to his solo endeavors, Hugh Sung has continued to receive critical acclaim for his work as an ensemble musician. He has been featured in the Philadelphia Orchestra's Chamber Music series, and has also collaborated with such distinguished groups and artists as The American Quartet, the Diaz Trio, Jeffrey Khaner, Julius Baker, Hilary Hahn, Leila Josefowicz, composers Jennifer Higdon, Robert Maggio, Harold Boatrite, and violinist Aaron Rosand, with whom he has recorded extensively under the Biddulph and Vox labels. His work can also be heard under the I Virtuosi, CRI, and Avie labels.

In 1993, Hugh Sung joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music, and currently serves as its Director of Instrumental Accompaniment and its world-renown Student Recitals Series.

Hugh Sung maintains an active website (www.HughHugh Sung.com) which combines his love of music and passion for technology, and serves as a rich resource for musicians looking for a friendly place to learn more about adopting technology to enhance their art and lifestyle. He is an early adopter of technologies like the Tablet PC, which has enabled him to completely convert his paper music library into a digital format, and innovative new performance presentations like the Visual Recital (www.VisualRecital.com), which combines images, animation, and video clips in a live recital setting fully synchronized and controlled by the musician. Sample music and video clips can be found both on his website and on his profile at MySpace.com (www.myspace.com/hughHugh Sung).

Tech Support: Pedal Turning Too Many Pages at a Time

Here's an interesting tech support question that came up while i was getting ready for my rehearsal with Midori yesterday - a friend of mine was inspired to get his own Tablet PC (a Toshiba model, i believe) via eBay and a page turning pedal from PedalPax to put together a digital music reading/annotating system similar to what i have. Upon receiving the used Tablet PC, installing PDF Annotator and waiting for his PedalPax pedal to arrive, he was finding that pressing the hardware button for page turns was advancing 2 or 3 pages at a time. At first i thought it might've been a damaged button on the unit and advised him to disable the page turning function associated with it. After receiving the pedal, however, the multiple page turns continued to be a problem. He was so exasperated that he gave me a call without realizing that i was about to start rehearsing in a few minutes.

At first i was pretty perplexed. A hardware button malfunction might've been one thing, but to have a USB pedal coming up with the same bug? Highly unlikely. Then the answer came to me in a flash - you can adjust the keyboard key delay and repeat speed within Windows (to get to the Keyboard settings, in the Windows XP Tablet PC edition press 'Start' on the Start Menu Bar, select 'Control Panel' - make sure you have the Classic View option set - then click on the 'Keyboard' icon). My friend must've had his delay setting much too early and his repeat rate much too fast. By setting both options towards their opposing values, that would solve the mystery multiple page advances by hardware button or pedal device, since both basically function as alternate keyboard entry devices.

i just called my friend and got confirmation that this solution seems to be working so far (hopefully it won't revert to sudden multiple page turns during the middle of a concert!). Oh, and by the way - he reports that the PedalPax pedal unit tends to be very squeaky underfoot, probably because of the type of material comprising the buttons.

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Setting up a Pianoteq digital piano system with Hugh Sung

Pianist Hugh Sung explains the basics of setting up a digital piano system in this YouTube video using the Pianoteq piano modeling software VST plugin. This is a great primer for musicians who are new to the world of digital instruments, MIDI connections, and the like.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=gf1t1qs0yTs]

More Pianoteq videos to be posted here soon.

Well, this time i came up even more empty handed in one sense - no autograph, no picture from my conductor rehearsal with violin superstar Midori. This was all i could come up with as a souvenir:

The concerto this time was by Benjamin Britten. To be honest, i wasn't familiar with the work and wasn't all that impressed when i heard Maxim Vengerov's recording (not to blame Vengerov, who plays it wonderfully - i just found the work way too long and overextended thematically). i suppose one evidence of great artistry is its ability to change opinions - once we ran through the piece with Maestro Eschenbach, i found myself falling in love with the piece, all thanks to Midori's exquisite rendition. Suddenly those meandering lines didn't feel nearly so long, and the lush passagework and extended passacaglia of the last movement gave a complete transport to another world.

One curious moment: as i checked in with the personnel office, i met Midori face to face as she was looking for an extra towel and introduced myself as the pianist for the rehearsal. She smiled and said yes, she had already seen me. Hm?

Way of the Wikipedia, Part 1

Just got home from an exhausting recording session in Baltimore, but i wanted to post this before i crash for the evening: H now stands for Hugh Sung in the Wikipedia!

For those of you who might not be familiar, www.Wikipedia.org is one of the largest (if not the largest) online encyclopedias on the internet that anyone can contribute to. That being said, one cannot simply write up self-promoting articles and expect them to be left in the Wikipedia repository willy-nilly - that lesson was learned the hard way by yours truly! With the open-source medium comes an amazing crack team of administrative editors and correction "bots" that are virtually instantaneous in their oversight of anything that enters the Wikipedia domain - in fact, if i recall this correctly, approximately 5,000 articles actually get deleted from the Wikipedia each day because of inappropriate or uncompliant content.

I'll get more into the tale of my Wikipedia journey when i'm less starved for sleep, but for now let me extend warm thanks to wiki-admins GoodDamon, Timotab, and especially ArielGold for their patience with me as i stumbled around in wiki-newness!

Earlier today i had a conductor rehearsal with Maestro Eschenbach and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter on the Brahms Violin Concerto in preparation for the Philadelphia Orchestra's Opening Night extravaganza for their 2007-2008 concert season. Several Philly Orchestra colleagues' eyebrows went up in puzzlement when they passed me waiting in front of the Maestro's studio - "Why in the world would she need to rehearse that piece? She already knows that one backwards and forwards!" All i could do was shrug my shoulders and smile - what did it matter? i was looking forward to working with one of the world's most renowned classical musicians!

Backwards and forwards indeed! The Brahms sounded nothing short of exquisite under Ms. Mutter's hands. Such power and comfortable command of that fearsome piece! And yet, she managed to find extraordinary moments to weave supple rubatos and highly personal statements that wonderfully complimented the towering artifices of the concerto.

i think Maestro Eschenbach likes to show off my Tablet PC whenever i show up for these conductor rehearsals - he seems to carry such a twinkle in his eye whenever guest artists ogle at my digital music setup, and Ms. Mutter was no exception to that reaction. Best moment during the rehearsal: Ms. Mutter leaning over during the exposition to ask me, "How do you turn the pages?" i replied, "With my left foot!"

We didn't get to go through the entire work, just key spots for tempi and transitions. What was worse, the Maestro and Ms. Mutter were in such a hurry at the end to get back to the main orchestra rehearsal that i didn't get a chance to snag a tourist picture with Ms. Mutter. Oh well...at least she was kind enough to give me her digital autograph...

...and i'll have to settle for this picture as proof of my short, yet extraordinary rehearsal with such a magnificent musician!

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A Tasty Compliment

Eric - my finicky-taste-budded 9-year old - told me last night that he thinks i make the best dinners ever! That garnered a hearty hug from me and a huffy pout from my mother-in-law! Wish i could take all the culinary credit, but this is really another feather in the cap for MealtimeMakeover.com, the weekly dinner and grocery planning service that's been a lot of fun for my whole family. The only complaint i have is that portions tend to be a lot bigger than my family of 6 is accustomed to eating. Even with leftovers for lunch, i'm finding that i have to throw away older dishes that don't get consumed fast enough. That quibble aside, it's been nothing short of a culinary adventure for everyone with easy-to-find ingredients and super-simple cooking instructions! Who knew cooking could be this much fun?

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Life by One Thousand Cuts

i thought this title was a clever take on how effective little adjustments in my monthly budget have been to bringing fiscal sanity to the Sung household (but i hope it's not too grisly a reminder of that old Chinese form of torture/execution, "Death by One Thousand Cuts"...) While there were some large "windfalls" that helped to take a huge chunk out of our debt snowball since May, the most significant points of progress has been in little things like packing lunches for myself and the kids, controlling grocery costs thanks to plans like the ones offered by <a href="http://www.MealTimeMakeover.com">MealTimeMakeover.com</a>, and plugging up little dollar leaks in previously "insignificant" areas like kids' haircuts, eating out, even Starbucks and snack money. As mentioned previously, lots of monthly savings are forthcoming with the switch in car and life insurance policies, and that makes it all look like we'll be attacking the last of our four big debts within the next month or so! If we manage to keep up this pace, it's very possible that by this time next year we'll be able to post a video of the Sung family screaming "WE'RE DEBT FREEEEEEE!!"

Wouldn't it be nice for once to start living in a way that breaks free of the old "starving artist" adage? i'm slowly learning what it means to curb my appetite for expensive toys and impulse items (no "Halo 3 XBox 360 for me, thank you very much...), and concurrently finding creative ways to be content with whatever's on hand (my 3 year old Samsung i730 Pocket PC phone still works just fine as an iPhone "don't-need-it-now" device! Oh, and the joys of discovering my <a href="http://iii.camden.lib.nj.us/search~S8">local library</a>!)

Yep...that <a href="http://daveramsey.com">crazy man on the radio</a> is making me do strange things...and the scary thing is that it all seems to be working so far!

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For many years i've worked on setting psalms and hymn texts to new musical settings for congregational worship. All my arrangements have always been completely copyright-free with no recompense required whatsoever - these have been written with the simple hope that Churches today can find musical material that puts its primary emphasis on the richness of Biblical text and great doctrine in a way that everyday folk can approach. I'm not a composer, so i'm highly self-conscious about making any pretenses in trying to be one given my immense respect for those who have dedicated their artistic lives to honing that craft. Nevertheless, it's a thrill to share this rendition of one of my hymn settings by The Kings Chamber Orchestra, directed by cellist extraordinaire Gerard Le Feuvre! This track will be part of a new album by the orchestra to be released in about 2 months' time. For this recording and similar, seek out the Kings Chamber Orchestra at www.kingschamberorchestra.co.uk.

The almost-17th century text by Philipp Nicolai is as follows:

How Lovely Shines the Morning Star Text by Philipp Nicolai, 1599 Music by Hugh Sung 1. How love-ly shines the Morn-ing Star! The na-tions see and hail a-far The light in Ju-dah shi-ning Thou, Da-vid's Son of Ja-cob's race, My Bride-groom and my King of Grace, For Thee my heart is pin-ing. Low-ly, Ho-ly, Great and glo-rious, Thou vic-tor-ious Prince of grac-es, Fill-ing all the heav'n-ly plac-es. 2. Now rich-ly to my wait-ing heart, O Thou, my God, deign to im-part The grace of love un-dy-ing. In Thy blest bod-y let me be, E'en as the branch is in the tree, Thy life my life sup-ply-ing. Sigh-ing, cry-ing, For the sav-or Of Thy fav-or; Rest-ing nev-er Till I rest in Thee for-ev-er. 3. Thou, might-y Fa-ther, in Thy Son Didst love me ere Thou hadst be-gun This an-cient world's foun-da-tion. Thy Son hath made a friend of me, And when in spi-rit Him I see, I joy in tri-bu-la-tion. What bliss is this! He that liv-eth To me giv-eth Life for-ev-er; Noth-ing me from Him can sev-er.

If you'd like to have a free copy of the PDF with the piano score and lead sheet, please visit http://ccpc-pca.com/303500.php for a list of all my worship song arrangements. You can also download it directly from this link. For a list of my psalm arrangements, please visit http://ccpc-pca.com/303100.php.

Hugh Sung www.hughsung.com http://hughsung.com www.hughsung.com/blog http://hughsung.com Hugh Sung www.hughsung.com http://hughsung.com www.hughsung.com/blog http://hughsung.com/blog

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