Lucille Chung
Born in Montréal, Canadian pianist Lucille Chung has been acclaimed by Gramophone for her “stylish and refined” performances. She is the First Prize winner of the Stravinsky International Piano Competition and made her orchestral debut at the age of ten with the Montréal Symphony Orchestra. Charles Dutoit subsequently invited her to appear as soloist on the orchestra’s Asian tour, marking the beginning of her international career.
Ms. Chung has since performed with more than seventy-five orchestras worldwide, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, KBS Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic, Flemish Radio Orchestra, Israel Chamber Orchestra, UNAM Philharmonic of Mexico, Staatskapelle Weimar, Philharmonie de Lorraine, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, among others. In Canada, she has appeared with all of the country’s major orchestras, including those of Montréal, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, and the Orchestre Métropolitain. Her collaborations include conductors such as Charles Dutoit, Krzysztof Penderecki, Vladimir Spivakov, Vasily Petrenko, Stéphane Denève, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Peter Oundjian, Gerd Albrecht, and Miguel Harth-Bedoya.
As a recitalist, Lucille Chung has performed in over thirty-five countries at venues including Wigmore Hall in London, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, the Kennedy Center and Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional, the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, and the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. Her festival appearances include the Verbier Festival, Santander International Festival, Incontri in Terra di Siena, Music@Menlo, Bard Music Festival, MDR Sommer Festival in Dresden, Lübecker Kammermusikfest, ChangChun Festival in China, and numerous international festivals throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
Her early distinctions include First Prize at the Stravinsky International Piano Competition, Second Prize at the Montréal International Music Competition, where she also received a special award for the best interpretation of an unpublished work, the Governor General of Canada’s Outstanding Achievement Award, Second Prize at the First International Franz Liszt Competition in Weimar, and the Virginia Parker Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts.
Ms. Chung’s discography has received exceptional critical acclaim. Her complete recordings of György Ligeti’s piano works for the Dynamic label were hailed by The Sunday Times as the work of “a considerable artist, admirable for her bold choice of music,” earning top distinctions from BBC Music Magazine, Classica-Répertoire, and Fono Forum. Her Scriabin recording won Best Instrumental Recording at the Prelude Classical Awards. Her discography also includes Mendelssohn’s Piano Concertos, Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Mozart, Saint-Saëns Piano Works, and a broad range of solo and chamber repertoire.
She records for Signum Records, with releases including Stravinsky’s Petrouchka in its original four-hand version, Ravel and Debussy for Two, with pianist Alessio Bax, Poulenc Piano Works, and Liszt Piano Works.
Ms. Chung graduated from both the Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School before the age of twenty and pursued further studies in London with Maria Curcio, in Salzburg with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, in Weimar with Lazar Berman, and in Dallas with Joaquín Achúcarro. She is fluent in French, English, Korean, Italian, German, and Russian. She resides in New York City with her family and is Artistic Co-Director of the Joaquín Achúcarro Foundation.
