Renowned Percussionist Ji Su Jung Appointed to the Curtis Faculty

Press Contacts:
Patricia K. Johnson | patricia.johnson@curtis.edu | (215) 717-3190
Ryan Scott Lathan | ryan.lathan@curtis.edu | (215) 717-3145

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PHILADELPHIA, PA—September 8, 2022—The Curtis Institute of Music is pleased to announce the appointment of internationally acclaimed, award-winning percussionist Ji Su Jung to the school’s timpani and percussion department, effective immediately.

Winner of the 2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant—the first solo percussionist ever in the program’s history to receive this prestigious honor—Ms. Jung joins Curtis at the start of the 2022–23 academic year from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, where she will continue serving on the conservatory’s faculty as a lecturer in percussion.

At Curtis, she will work with the school’s gifted young musicians alongside esteemed percussion faculty members Don Liuzzi, Eric Millstein, Rolando Morales-Matos, Joe Nero, and Robert van Sice. As Ms. Jung steps into this new role, she will be among a distinguished roster of performers, pedagogues, and artist-citizens teaching at Curtis, including Michelle Cann, Imani Winds, Eric Owens, Midori, among many others.

“We are so thrilled to welcome Ms. Jung to our faculty,” says President and CEO Roberto Díaz. “She is a tremendous artist, and her distinctive experiences and entrepreneurial spirit will be a wonderful resource for our students as they prepare for life as 21st-century musicians.”

Born in South Korea, Ms. Jung began her percussion studies at age four and came to the United States in 2011. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree and graduate performance diploma from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University thanks to a generous grant from The Brookby Foundation in Wisconsin. She later received a Master of Music degree and artist diploma from the Yale School of Music, where she studied under the tutelage of famed percussionist Robert van Sice, her new Curtis colleague.

Ms. Jung’s exceptional potential quickly blossomed into professional success leading to concerto performances with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Springs Philharmonic, Colorado Music Festival, Aspen Festival Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Romanian Symphony Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony, and the Windsor Symphony in Canada and many others. Her recitals across the United States have won over new audiences for the marimba, and her appearance at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C, resulted in an unexpected invitation to join the faculty at The Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.

Ms. Jung was the first percussionist in twenty-six years to win the First Prize at the 2018 Ima Hogg Competition of the Houston Symphony, where she also garnered the Audience Choice Award. In 2015, she was a laureate at the renowned International Marimba Competition in Linz, Austria, and NPR radio host Fred Childs invited Ms. Jung to be a young artist in residence on his nationally syndicated program, Performance Today. She has presented master classes at the Curtis Institute of Music, New York University, The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, and the Beijing Conservatory in China.

About the Curtis Institute of Music
The Curtis Institute of Music educates and trains exceptionally gifted young musicians to engage a local and global community through the highest level of artistry. For nearly a century Curtis has provided each member of its small student body with an unparalleled education alongside musical peers, distinguished by a “learn by doing” philosophy and personalized attention from a faculty that includes a high proportion of actively performing musicians. With admissions based solely on artistic promise, no student is turned away due to financial need. Curtis invests in each admitted student, ensuring no tuition is charged for their studies and they enter the profession free from educational debt. In a typical year, Curtis students hone their craft through more than 200 orchestra, opera, and solo and chamber music offerings in Philadelphia and around the world. Learn more at Curtis.edu.