Helen Sung Quartet

About this event

Described as “one of the most exciting new pianist-composers of her generation” (Qobuz) with “piano playing at a quite unbelievably jaw-dropping level” (London Jazz News), Helen Sung is a dazzling story-teller at her instrument, moving listeners with her passion and inspired creativity. Sung is based in New York City, but is visiting faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and an Associate Professor at Columbia University, where she was also the inaugural jazz artist-in-residence at its Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute exploring analogies between jazz and neuroscience. Helen Sung’s debut big band album Oracles (Sunnyside Records, June 2026) pays tribute to the jazz legends who were her mentor-teachers at the Monk Institute of Jazz Performance (now the Herbie Hancock Institute), for which she composed musical portraits ranging from “A Little Bird Watchin’” for impish Jimmy Heath, “Positively CT” for the indomitable Clark Terry, “Wayne’s World” for the mystic Wayne Shorter, “Mr. Virtuoso” for Maestro Ron Carter, to “Pianism,” a piano concerto celebrating a diverse group of keyboard legends: Sir Roland Hanna, Barry Harris, Kenny Barron, and Herbie Hancock. Now, Sung distills this music for small group, making the West Coast debut of her Oracles Quartet to feature music from her new album while including the music of a living oracle (or two!). Helen Sung Website Sponsored by Kuumbwa Jazz Board of Trustees (Ticket Includes 5% City of Santa Cruz Admission Tax) This concert is supported in-part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts via the Western Jazz Presenters Network.

Description from kuumbwajazz.org