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Eric Sung

Pre-College
  • Cello
Continuing Education
  • Cello
Eric Sung Headshot

Contact

Instruments Taught

Cello

Education

Advanced Degree, University of Southern California

BM, Cleveland Institute of Music

Ensembles

Principal Cello, San Francisco Ballet

San Francisco Opera

San Francisco Symphony

Los Angeles Philharmonic

Hong Kong Philharmonic

Sydney Symphony

National Arts Centre Orchestra

Q&A

What is your hometown?

Agoura California

What is your favorite recording? Why?

Claire De Lune, by Claude Debussy, performed by Jascha Heifetz. In such a short piece, full of color and wonder, Heifetz transports the listener to another world and elicits the greatest variety of emotions.

What are you passionate about outside of music?

Instruments and Bows

Who were your major teachers?

Ronald Leonard, Stephen Geber, Lynn Harrell

What was the defining moment when you decided to pursue music as a career?

Listening to the Cleveland Orchestra live at Severance Hall.

What is your daily practice routine?

Galamian scales, arpeggios; etudes by Popper, Gruetzmacher, Duport, Servais, Franchomme, Piatti; Bach Suites

If you could play only three composers for the rest of your life, who would they be?

Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss, JS Bach

Biography

Eric Sung is the Principal Cellist of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. He has studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music, University of Southern California, and the Juilliard School. His principal teachers have been Stephen Geber, David Geber, Ronald Leonard, Fred Sherry and Lynn Harrell and he has participated in masterclasses with notable cellists such as Laurence Lesser, Frans Helmerson, Joel Krosnick, Janos Starker, Steven Isserlis, Norman Fischer, Aldo Parisot and Irene Sharp. An avid chamber musician, Eric has performed at the Taos, Sarasota, Scotia, Kent/Blossom, Aspen, Tanglewood, Mendocino and San Luis Obispo Mozaic Festivals. Sung studied with members of the American, Cleveland, Orion, Takacs, and Guarneri String Quartets and has performed in concert with the California E.A.R. Unit, Duke String Quartet, Quartet San Francisco, Joshua Bell, Michael Tree, Ronald Leonard, Alexander Kerr, John Graham, Lawrence Dutton, and Jeffrey Kahane. Eric has been heard as soloist with the Colburn Chamber Orchestra, Saratoga Symphony, Stanford University Summer Symphony, San Francisco Philharmonic, Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra and the Aspen Academy of Conducting Orchestra. He has participated in the New York String Seminar, Piatigorsky Seminar and has performed at the National Repertory Orchestra, National Orchestra Institute, Pacific, Verbier Festivals and the Sun Valley Symphony. He was a member of the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra and was Assistant Principal of the Hong Kong Philharmonic. Eric has served as Acting/Guest Principal of the Sydney Symphony and the National Arts Centre Orchestra and has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. A dedicated teacher, Eric's students have been prize winners at various competitions including the Johansen International Competition, US Open International Music Competition, American Protege, Junior Bach Festival, Menuhin-Dowling, Mission College Symphony Young Artists Competition, American Fine Arts Festival, Chinese Music Teachers Association of California, and Korean Times Music Competition. Eric’s students have been accepted at schools including Harvard, MIT, Yale, USC, NEC, and Stanford. They have also participated at festivals including Yellow Barn, Bowdoin, Aspen, Music@Menlo, and the Heifetz Institute and have been heard on the radio program, From the Top. Eric has served as a coach for the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, San Francisco Academy Orchestra, KAMSA Youth Orchestra and the Orchestra Institute Napa Valley.

Accepting intermediate and advanced students.