David Fung

David Fung is an Australian concert pianist. Fung holds a Ph.D. and an M.Mus. from the Yale School of Music and a B.Mus. and an Artist's Diploma from the Colburn School.

Early life and education

Fung attended James Ruse Agricultural High School in Sydney, where he graduated in 2001 with a UAI of 100 and earned a scholarship to study the M.B.B.S. course at the University of New South Wales.^[1] Following two years of medical school, in 2003, Fung left to pursue an education and training in music.^[2]

Musical education and training

In 2002, David Fung won the ABC Symphony Australia Young Performers Awards, after four rounds of competition which culminated in his performance of Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra during the concerto finals at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.^[3] He has subsequently appeared with the major orchestras of Australia and recorded a CD with the ABC Classics label.^[4]

Deciding to pursue a career in music, Fung transferred in 2003 to the Colburn School in Los Angeles to study with John Perry. Fung was the first student of piano to be admitted to the Colburn Conservatory in its inaugural year; in May 2007, he became the first pianist to graduate from the Conservatory.^[5]

Career

Fung has performed as soloist with the major orchestras of his native Australia, including the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Queensland Orchestra, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and internationally with the Israel Camerata Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Royal Chamber Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra among numerous others. A frequent guest artist of concert series and festivals throughout the world, Mr. Fung has performed at the Aspen Music Festival, the Edinburgh International Festival, the Ravinia Festival, then Atlantic Music Festival, the Bari International Music Festival in Italy, Music at Menlo in California, New York's Carnegie Hall and Merkin Hall, Los Angeles' Walt Disney Concert Hall and Royce Hall, Wigmore Hall in London, Scotland's Queen’s Hall, Belgium's La Monnaie, Toronto's Glenn Gould Studio, the Sydney Opera House, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the National Concert Hall in Taiwan, and Israel's Mann Auditorium. His debut at the Edinburgh International Festival Queen’s Hall Series was acclaimed as being “impossibly virtuosic, prodigiously talented... and probably [doing] ten more impossible things daily before breakfast,” by Jonas Green in the Edinburgh Guide. His recitals at the Edinburgh International Festival were especially well received.^[6][7]

Fung became a top prizewinner of the 2013 Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Brussels and the 12th Arthur Rubinstein Piano Masters Competition in Tel Aviv, where he was also awarded the Prize for Best Classical Concerto, and Best Performance of Chamber Music.^[8] He is also a prizewinner of the Bösendorfer, Honens, and Scottish International Piano Competitions.

Besides the piano, Fung also plays the harpsichord and violin.

Personal life

Fung is proficient in Chinese and Italian.^[9]

Awards

• The 2013 Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition; Laureate
• Charles S. Miller Award, Yale University (2010)
• The 12th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Masters Competition: Laureate, Prize for Best Classical Concerto, Prize for Best Chamber Music (2008)
• The 3rd Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition: 2nd Prize and Audience Prize (2003)
• ABC Symphony Australia Young Performers Award; Grand Prize winner (2002)

Recordings

In addition to recording for Naxos and ABC Classics, Fung has recorded three albums with Los Angeles-based Yarlung Records.

In 2005, Mr. Fung’s debut album with Yarlung Records linked the virtuosity in the piano music of Liszt and Ravel: Liszt’s Sonata in B minor and Les jeux d’eau à la villa d’Este, with Ravel’s Jeux d’Eau and La Valse. His second album with Yarlung, Evening Conversations, featured a solo recital of intimate works by composers ranging from Mozart to Tan Dun. Evening Conversations was praised as “an overall favorite” by James Harrington in the American Record Guide and was named one of the Top 10 Recordings of 2011 by Linn Records. As a chamber musician, Mr. Fung has recorded the complete violin and piano works of American composer Lawrence Dillon with violinist Danielle Belen (Naxos) and partnered with Canadian ‘cellist Elinor Frey in her album Dialoghi (Yarlung).^[10]

Notes

External links

• Official homepage