Pianist/composer Helen Sung hails from Houston, TX, where she attended the High School for the Performing & Visual Arts. An aspiring classical pianist before jazz intervened during undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin, Sung went on to graduate from the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance (at the New England Conservatory) and win the Kennedy Center's Mary Lou Williams Jazz Piano Competition. Now based in New York City, Sung has worked with such luminaries as the late Clark Terry, Ron Carter, Steve Turre, Wayne Shorter, and MacArthur Fellow Regina Carter. Sung's sixth release as leader, Anthem For A New Day (2014), is her major label debut on Concord Records. It topped jazz radio charts, reached #25 on the Billboard Jazz Album chart, and garnered a SESAC Performance Activity Award. With appearances at major festivals/venues including Newport, Monterey, Detroit, SFJAZZ, and Carnegie Hall, Sung is also stepping onto the international stage: her NuGenerations Project toured southern Africa as a U.S. State Department Jazz Ambassador, and recent engagements include a European CD Release Tour for Anthem, the London Jazz Festival, and Shanghai's "JZ Festival". In addition to her own band, Sung can currently be seen with such fine ensembles as the Mingus Big Band & Dynasty Band, T.S.Monk Band, and Terri Lyne Carrington’s Mosaic Project (she also performed on Terri Lyne Carrington's Grammy-winning Mosaic Project). An active composer, Sung has completed various commissions and was awarded a 2014 Chamber Music America/Doris Duke Foundation "New Jazz Works" Grant. Inspired by her experience at the Monk Institute, Sung stays involved in music education through residencies and workshops/clinics, and in the Fall of 2015 joined the jazz faculties at the Juilliard School and Columbia University.