The second half of the Howard Performing Arts Center’s 2024-2025 season will kick off on Sunday, Jan. 27, at 4 p.m. At the program, Chi Yong Yun, professor of music at Andrews University, will perform with guest soprano Hein Jung. This upcoming afternoon of songs will warm your heart and enlighten your day—and it’s totally free! Here’s some information you should know before going to the concert.
As the current director of keyboard studies at Andrews, Chi Yong Yun holds a long record of recognition and experience as a performer and teacher. She obtained her bachelor's degree and master's degree in music from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as a Thomson Star Fellow. She went on to earn her doctoral degree in musical arts at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign under renowned pianist Ian Hobson. Her current and previous students have appreciated her guidance on technique, musicality and performance.
The focus of her upcoming recital is a composer who is well-loved by classically trained singers and pianists alike: Franz Schubert. Besides teaching piano and composing, Schubert liked to invite other friends to what they called the “Schubertiades,” where he would showcase his compositions, from chamber music to songs.
Yun, in an interview with the Student Movement, mentioned that Schubert composed “over 600 lieders in his short lifetime” and “had an uncanny ability to translate poetry into music.” With that in mind, she coordinated a collaboration with Hein Jung to recreate a similar event for a southwest Michigan audience.
As a full-time performer, Hein Jung has been well received internationally and in the United States. She has performed at several renowned classical music festivals, such as the Tanglewood Music Festival in Boston, Massachusetts. Specializing in opera, oratorio and recital, Jung has been involved in many operas, in a wide variety of roles. She performed as the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte” (“The Magic Flute”) with the Indianapolis Opera in May 2023, and has performed as a soloist for masses and oratorios by Bach, Handel and other composers.
Yun met Jung at the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Italy in the summer of 2022.
“We performed together in Italy and wanted to extend our collaboration,” Yun said, which led them to organize this recital.
The program will be divided into two parts. First, a solo piano part will open with the Impromptus from Opus 142. Yun shared that this set of impromptus was first “rejected by publishers as being ‘too difficult’ and therefore unmarketable,” but the pieces were published in 1839, after Schubert’s death. The second half will showcase voice and piano, with a selection of lieders (songs) by the composer. Yun describes them as “a dramatic set of songs that displays Schubert’s ingenious ability to exploit each instrument to the highest artistic expression.” The program will end with the famous piece “Ave Maria.”
Come to the recital this Sunday and let the power of music work on you.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.