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Gallery Concert

Gallery Concert: Shibagaki-Shung Piano Duo

Natsumi Shibagaki

Irwin Shung

Saturday, February 22, 2020, 7 pm

Heights Arts

Free Admission

Natsumi Shibagaki, a native of Japan, serves as staff pianist at the Cleveland Institute of Music. An avid chamber musician and collaborator, Ms. Shibagaki has performed with numerous artists in the greater Cleveland area, including members of the Canton Symphony, the Akron Symphony, Cleveland State University, and the Cleveland Orchestra. Ms. Shibagaki has participated in a number of international music festivals since arriving in the States, including the Music Academy of West, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Mendocino Music Festival – Emerging Artists Program, and the Interlochen Arts Camp. Ms. Shibagaki received both her Bachelor’s and Master’s of Music degrees in solo piano performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as a student of Mack McCray. She moved to Cleveland in 2011 to pursue a Professional Studies diploma in collaborative piano at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) with Anita Pontremoli, where she received the Rosa Lobe Collaborative Piano Award. Besides fulfilling her responsibilities as an in-demand collaborative pianist, Ms. Shibagaki also devotes herself to the education of younger students. In addition to maintaining a private studio in Cleveland, Shibagaki also worked as an educator for the Cleveland International Piano Competition and the Advanced Suzuki Institute of Stanford, and currently serves as adjunct piano faculty at the John Carroll University.

Dr. Irwin Shung, whose playing has been praised by State Magazine for its “ease, technique, and musicianship,” has performed in North America, Europe, and Asia. Dr. Shung served as theory faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music from 2015 to 2018, and also directs the Resonance Masters’ Series at the new performance hall, Resonance at SOMA, situated in Bellevue, Washington, which has featured internationally acclaimed artists such as Rachel Barton Pine, Jinjoo Cho (Oberlin Conservatory, McGill Conservatory), Daniel Shapiro (Cleveland Institute), Craig Sheppard (University of Washington, Guildhall School), and Adam Pearl (Peabody Institute).

Shung received his Doctorate of Musical Arts in Piano Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music in January 2015, where he studied with Dr. Daniel Shapiro. He has also received instruction on piano from various distinguished teachers including Marian Hahn (Peabody Conservatory), Leon Fleisher (Peabody Conservatory), Herbert Stessin (Julliard School), and Gabriel Chodos (New England Conservatory). Awards received include the Pauline Favin Memorial Award from the Peabody Conservatory of Music and a win in the 2012 Darius Milhaud Competition.

Shung has been newly appointed piano faculty at Notre Dame College in Cleveland. His performances have been featured by KING FM in Seattle, as well as WCLV in Cleveland, and his complete recording of the first book of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier is available on the internet.

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