David Fung, piano

An indoor concert at the Stamford United Methodist Church
88 Main St., Stamford, New York 12167

Tributes
This program explores works of homage and devotion. In reflection of current events, this program is dedicated to the unseen and unheard, and to all those affected by the pandemic. Featuring works by J.S Bach, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Florence Price, Reena Esmail, and Frederic Chopin.

RESERVATIONS RECOMMENDED as church seating is limited
E-mail: FOMAdmin@friendsmusic.org
Phone#: 518.918.8003
Masks required & social distancing encouraged.
In-person donations welcome.

Praised for his “ravishing and simply gorgeous” performances in The Washington Post, pianist David Fung is widely recognized for interpretations that are elegant and refined, yet intensely poetic and uncommonly expressive. Declared a “Rising Star” in BBC Music Magazine in 2019, Mr. Fung regularly appears with the world’s premier ensembles including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, the Israel Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the San Diego Symphony, and the San Francisco Symphony, as well as the major orchestras in his native country of Australia, including the Melbourne Symphony, the Queensland Symphony, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. 

In the 2020-21 season, Mr. Fung made his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut alongside Yuja Wang and conductor Gustavo Dudamel in the Sound/Stage series at the Hollywood Bowl, play-directed Bach with Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and returned to Caramoor for performances with both bass-baritone Dashon Burton and the Verona Quartet. This followed an eventful 2019-20 season, which included a debut with the Detroit Symphony for its opening concerts celebrating the Orchestra Hall Centennial, performances at Town Hall Seattle and Eastman Presents, a collaboration with the Brentano Quartet at Yale University and Carnegie Hall, and headlining the 2020 WQXR Pride Celebrations in New York City. Highlights for the 2021-22 season include appearances with the Charleston, Niagara, Racine, and Vallejo Symphony Orchestras, performances with the Las Vegas Philharmonic together with Tessa Lark and Joshua Roman, reuniting with the Dover Quartet at his debut with the Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival, and a special project with Nico Muhly at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City.

Mr. Fung’s highly acclaimed debut with the Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Music Festival was “everything you could wish for” (Cleveland Classical), and he was further praised as an “agile and alert interpreter of Mozart’s crystalline note-spinning” (The Plain Dealer). In the following week, he performed Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini at the Beijing National Stadium for their Olympic Summer Festival. He also performed the West Coast Premiere of Chen Qigang’s Piano Concerto, “Er Huang”, with the San Francisco Symphony. Other recent orchestral engagements include appearances with the symphony orchestras of Albany, Arkansas, Kitchener-Waterloo, Israel, Marin, Southwest Florida, Sun Valley, Tacoma, and Vallejo, the Tampere Philharmonic, the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, the New Japan Philharmonic, and Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie. An incisive interpreter of Mozart and Bach, Mr. Fung has also appeared with the Israel, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Orpheus, and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestras.

As a recitalist and chamber musician, Mr. Fung is a frequent guest artist at prestigious festivals and venues worldwide. Festival highlights include performances at the Aspen Music Festival, Blossom Music Festival, Brussels Piano Festival, Caramoor, Edinburgh International Festival, Hong Kong Arts Festival, the Ravinia Festival, Tippet Rise, and Yeosu International Music Festival. At his Edinburgh International Festival debut, the Edinburgh Guide described Mr. Fung as being “impossibly virtuosic, prodigiously talented… and who probably does ten more impossible things daily before breakfast.” In recent seasons, he has been presented in recital by Washington Performing Arts at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center’s Great Performers, the Louvre Museum, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the National Concert Hall in Taiwan, and the Zürich Tonhalle. In 2015, he gave a recital tour in China at all the major venues including the Beijing Concert Hall, Shanghai Oriental Art Center, Guangzhou Opera House, and the Tianjin Grand Theater.

Mr. Fung garnered international attention as a prizewinner in both the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Brussels and the Arthur Rubinstein Piano International Masters Competition in Tel Aviv. In Tel Aviv, he was further distinguished by the Chamber Music and Mozart Prizes, awarded in areas in which Mr. Fung has a passionate interest. The first piano graduate of the prestigious Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles, Mr. Fung also studied at the Hannover Hochschule für Musik and the Yale School of Music. His teachers include Margaret Hair, Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, John Perry, and Arie Vardi. Mr. Fung is on faculty at the University of Georgia and is a Steinway Artist.