THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY College of Music presents
2026 Annual Competitive Festival
Guest Artist Recital
Friday, February 27, 2026
7:30 p.m. | Longmire Recital Hall
To Ensure An Enjoyable Concert Experience For All…
Please refrain from talking, entering, or exiting during performances. Food and drink are prohibited in all concert halls. Recording or broadcasting of the concert by any means, including the use of digital cameras, cell phones, or other devices is expressly forbidden. Please deactivate all portable electronic devices including watches, cell phones, pagers, hand-held gaming devices or other electronic equipment that may distract the audience or performers.
Recording Notice: This performance may be recorded. Please note that members of the audience may at times be included in this process. By attending this performance you consent to have your image or likeness appear in any live or recorded video or other transmission or reproduction made in conjunction to the performance.
Florida State University provides accommodations for persons with disabilities. Please notify the College of Music at (850) 644-3424 at least five working days prior to a musical event to request accommodation for disability or alternative program format.
Variations Brillantes, Op. 12
Douze Études pour Piano
Frederic Chopin (1810–1849)
Claude Debussy
1. Pour les Cinq Doigts (d’après Monsieur Czerny) (1862–1918)
Études pour Piano, Premier livre (1985) György Ligeti
4. Fanfares (1923–2006)
Piano Etudes Unsuk Chin
4. Scalen (b. 1961)
Etude, Op. 25, No. 1
A Bit of Noise in the System (2021)
Written for Boston Etudes project and Jihye Chang
Frederic Chopin (1810–1849)
Dan VanHassel (b. 1981)
Seven Virtuoso Etudes
George Gershwin/Earl Wild
4. Embraceable You (1973) (1898–1937)/(1915–2010)
Silver Bells! (2023)
Written for Jihye Chang
Chorale Fantasy No. 4, “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” (2018)
Written for Continuum 88 Project and Jihye Chang
Piano Sonata, Op. 110 in A flat Major
Sungji Hong (b. 1973)
Shinuh Lee (b. 1968)
Ludwig van Beethoven
I. Moderato cantabile molto espressivo (1770–1827)
II. Allegro molto
III. Adagio ma non troppo – Allegro ma non troppo
VanHassel – A Bit of Noise in the System
The music of composer and multi-instrumentalist Dan VanHassel has been described as “energizing” (Wall Street Journal), “an imaginative and rewarding soundscape” (SF Classical Voice) and “funky machine music” (SF Chronicle). VanHassel is the artistic director and electric guitarist of the Hinge Quartet, and was a founding member of chamber ensemble Wild Rumpus. Currently living just outside of Boston, VanHassel is an Assistant Professor of Composition at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee.
The piece is made up of two distinct layers acting in counterpoint to each other. The first layer consists of perpetual motion arpeggios, and the second “noisy” rhythmic interjections. Each layer has its own separate trajectory, with the arpeggios remaining cool and consistent throughout and the rhythmic interjections starting as barely perceptible blips that gradually build into smashing clusters. The material for the piece was initially written in a burst of improvisatory inspiration for two pianos over a few days, and then over the course of several months I attempted to solve the “puzzle” of retaining as much as possible from the original two piano parts in a version for a single pianist. This process ended up being a calming activity to focus my mind on during some of the worst months of the pandemic, as the world seemed to be falling apart around me.
Hong – Silver Bells!
Sungji Hong’s music has been described as “a work of iridescent freshness” (BBC Music Magazine), “the sound is utterly luminous” (Fanfare Magazine), and “the harmonies and fluid dynamics were modern” (The New York Times). At times complex and at times straightforward, her passionate music uses precise timbres to unfold dramatic, virtuoso gestures, iridescent colors, and vivid, atmospheric auras. Her music has been performed in over 47 countries and 236 cities throughout Europe, the United States and Asia. Hong’s honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, commissions from the Fromm Music Foundation, the National Flute Association, the MATA Festival, the Tongyeoung International Music Festival, Kumho Asiana Cultural Foundation, Lorelei Ensemble, iSing Silicon Valley, Ensemble TIMF, and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Her Missa Lumen de Lumine on the ECM New Series (ECM 1929), performed by the vocal ensemble Trio Mediaeval, received critical acclaim and reached the top ten on the Billboard Classical Chart and iTunes classics. Hong holds degrees from Hanyang University, the Royal Academy of Music, and the University of York in the United Kingdom. She was the Manson Fellow of Composition at the Royal Academy and was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM), London. Hong is an Associate Professor of Music Composition at the University of North Texas.
The inspiration for this piece is based on The Bells, the first among four parts, by Edgar Allan Poe. The poem was one of his last works, which was written in 1848. My piece, Silver Bells! responds to the highly onomatopoeic poem through the exploration of bell-like resonant sounds on the piano to echo the sounds of the verses.
Silver Bells! was completed in 2023 and is dedicated to pianist Jihye Chang. It was first performed by Chang on 13 February 2023 at the Voertman Hall, University of North Texas.
“The Bells” by Edgar Allan Poe
Hear the sledges with the bells— Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight; Keeping time, time, time, In a sort of Runic rhyme, To the tintinabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells, Bells, bells, bells—
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
Lee – “Chorale Fantasy for Piano”
Shinuh Lee is a composer whose work reflects a sustained inquiry into human existence, shaped by lived experience and attentive listening. While her earlier music engaged questions of suffering, healing, and meaning—often drawing on biblical texts as a universal language rather than doctrinal expression—her recent works move toward states of stillness, perception, and sonic presence. Writing primarily for instrumental and orchestral forces, Lee allows sound to emerge with clarity and restraint, translating inner conditions rather than asserting narrative or message. Her long-term projects, including the Psalm works, Chorale Fantasies, and the ongoing series Shinuh Lee’s The Road Not Taken, bring together decades of reflection into a refined musical language grounded in listening and resonance. Her music has been performed internationally by major orchestras and ensembles at venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Vienna Musikverein, and the Konzerthaus Berlin. Lee studied composition at Seoul National University and later in the UK, received numerous international and Korean awards, and was named an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) in 2019. She is Professor of Composition at Seoul National University and continues an active international career.
“Chorale Fantasy for Piano” is a series I have been composing since 2007. After No. 1, “Comfort Comfort My People,” No. 2, “The Collar,” and No. 3 “Alleluia,” No. 4, “Eun fest Burg list Unser Gott” was written for Jihye Chang for her Continuum 88 series in 2018. No. 4 is based on Martin Luther’s chorale of the same title, and I used wide ranges of the piano with limited harmonies, rhythm, and texture. I tried to use the horizontal and vertical density of the piano with sounds that accumulate from the lowest register to the highest register and express the spirit of the religious revolution that happened 500 years ago.
Dr. Jihye Chang Sung enjoys a diverse career as a soloist, collaborator, educator, scholar, and advocate for new music in the United States and abroad. Her performances focus on the creative process of collaborating with living composers, curating programs that connect to various audiences, and giving context to contemporary works. Critics have noted her “exuberance and confidence” and “faultless technique,” describing her as “the perfect vehicle for so many diverse ideas” and a performer provides a “demonstration of a musical space beyond mere virtuosity.”
She is a recipient of the first prize of the Mikhashoff International Pianist-Composer Competition, the Henry Kohn Award from the Tanglewood Music Center, an Honorary Fellowship from the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, and the Aaron Copland Recording Grant. She has appeared as a soloist with the Brevard Music Center Sinfonietta, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Fargo Moorhead Symphony Orchestra, Wonjoo Philharmonic Orchestra (South Korea), Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, and Virtuosi of Festival Internacionale de Musica in Recife (Brazil), among others. Recently, she premiered Igerthi, a piano concerto written for her by Sungji Hong, with Intersection Music in Nashville and performed it again with Florida State University’s Polymorphia Ensemble.
As a dedicated chamber musician, she has collaborated with musicians from across the states including Cheeyun, Jordan Bak, Andrés Cardenes, Frank Cohen, Andrés Diaz, Inbal Segev, and Richard Young, and has appeared at the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth, Blue Candlelight Music Series in Dallas, Broman Series at Mary Baldwin University, Parker Concert Series in Brevard, and Artists Series of Tallahassee.
Her programming creativity is exemplified by “Continuum 88,” a collaborative project she has led since 2016. In this initiative, she focuses each concert season on a different genre of the piano repertoire—such as sonatas, etudes, and variations—programming masterworks of the literature alongside newly commissioned works by younger composers. Nine new works have been created by composers of diverse backgrounds and styles, and she has led more than 20 performances in venues across the United States, South Korea, and Taiwan. Following a 2024-5 replay season of miniatures and fantasies, her 2025–2026 season focuses on etudes, fantasies, and sonata genre.
Piano etudes are a cornerstone of her research and performance. She has given lectures and performances on this topic at institutions including Indiana University, Rutgers University, and U. C. Berkeley, often collaborating with young composers. She also launched a successful collaboration with the Brevard composition area in 2016 called the “BMC Etude Project” and continues to lecture on the genre at various institutions. Most recently she released Boston Etudes on New Focus Recordings in 2024, featuring eight commissions from Boston-area composers. The CD received a five-star review from Fanfare Magazine, which described the “engrossing program” as a showcase for her “hushed virtuosity,” “scintillating impression,” and “faultless technique.” Other research interests include music by living women composers and Korean composers, which she has brought to venues at University of North Texas, Northeastern University, Boston Conservatory, and C4NM San Francisco.
Sung graduated summa cum laude from Seoul National University and earned Master’s and Doctoral degrees from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, under the tutelage of the late György Sebök, Edward Auer, Evelyn Brancart, and Reiko Neriki. She is a Senior Lecturer at Boston University, a faculty member at the Brevard Music Center, and the director of Piano Intensive Program in multiple locations. Her recordings can be found on Albany, Centaur, Parma, and Sony Korea.