Saturday, October 6, 2007

Pianist Hugh Sung's Bio

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 4, 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.