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.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Friday, October 12, 2007
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!
Saturday, October 06, 2007
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).
Thursday, October 04, 2007
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.
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
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?
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
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!
