AMASI TRIO with violinist Prof. Sungrai Sohn, cellist Dr. Chungsun Kim and Dr. Tammy Lum is the resident trio of Nyack College School of Music. Since the inception of the group in the early nineties, The Amasi Trio has performed a wide range of repertoire from the Western and Asian literature. The group has performed in the Beethoven Festival in New York, the Sarah Lawrence College Concert Series and with the Sarah Lawrence Chamber Orchestra, St. Paul’s Festival of the Arts, Carnegie Room Series, and Nyack College Concert Series as well as in young people’s concerts. In 2004, The Amasi Trio recorded the “Trio Parables” and “Violinist in the Mall” by composer William Vollinger. The latter piece was elected as the co-winner of the 2005 Friends and Enemies of New Music competition. As the resident trio of the Nyack College School of Music, all the members are teaching faculty in piano, strings, chamber music and String Orchestra. In 2013, the trio released their recording, “Piano Trios: Parker, Rachmaninoff, Chaminade, Liljestrand & Piazzolla.”
SUNGRAI SOHN, violin
Sungrai Sohn, violinist and conductor, is a founder and first violinist of the Laurentian String Quartet and Amasi Piano Trio, and has performed annually in major concert halls throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, the Far East and Africa. As a chamber musician, Mr. Sohn has collaborated with such eminent artists as Richard Stolzman, Kurt Masur, Eugenia Zuckerman, Gervase de Peyer, Ronald Roseman, Paul Doktor, Hyo Kang, as well as with members of the Fine Arts Quartet, Tokyo String Quartet, Borodin Quartet, American String Quartet and Borodin Trio. He was a Grand Prize Winner in Solo and Chamber Music in Korea and recipient of the Maryland Women’s Club Award, Artist International Award, Jack Kahn Award and Honored Diplomat, Algiers Fourth International Music Festival. Mr. Sohn has acted as a chair-adjudicator for the New York Music Competition since 2000. He has performed as a soloist with many orchestras including the New York Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, and Lincoln Center. As a recording artist, he has recorded for Musical Heritage Society, Soundspells Production, Newport Classics, and Sony Classical. Mr. Sohn was educated at the Peabody Institute -Johns Hopkins University and graduated with the Theodore Martin Award for Excellence in Music. He received his Master’s degree at Sarah Lawrence College as a scholarship student of Dorothy DeLay, where he has taught violin and viola since 1983 and is conductor of the Sarah Lawrence College Orchestra, Director of Chamber Music and String Department.
CHUNGSUN KIM, cello
A dynamic and versatile artist, Chungsun Kim has been widely recognized for performances in major music capitals in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Her expressive playing and extraordinary musicianship has led her to perform at many different concerts and venues in the United States and abroad. She has appeared as a soloist with Pro-Arte Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Virtuosi, Sarah Lawrence Symphony Orchestra, National Repertoire Orchestra, Philhamonia Lawrencia, New York Virtouosi, Juilliard Chamber Orchestra, and Aspen Summer Music Festival Orchestra. She was also featured as a guest soloist with the Little Orchestra Society at Lincoln Center in part of the "Vivaldi’s Venice.” She was also a featured soloist in various venues including New International Music Festival, Lawrentian Summer Music Festival, Arcady Music Festival, and Beethoven Festival. As a result of winning the Artist International Debut Presentation Competition in chamber music, she was presented at the Carnegie Recital Hall. Ms. Kim premiered a composition in 2005, "Cello Rhapsody" by Craig Morris in NY. Her engagement as a faulty and recitalist at the New International Music Festival in 2000 subsequently led to her duo recital with Kazuko Hayami under the sponsorship of Araki Industry Corporation in Japan. As an active chamber musician, Ms. Kim has been a founding member of Amasi Trio, the Trio in Residence of Nyack College School of Music for the last eighteen years. Since 2012, she also has been performing as a member of Trio di Buson under the management of Patricia Alberti Performing Artists Management. She joined the Orion Music Ensemble in 2011 and had been involved with the Balcony Chamber Music Series in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY. Her previous chamber music concerts have been in major concert halls throughout the United States, Singapore, Chile, Germany, Korea, Japan, and Canada. As a dedicated teacher and cello pedagogue, she has taught in various settings including Sarah Lawrence Music Festival, New International Music Festival, and master classes at Ithaca College and Ithaca Violoncello Institute. She has been an faculty at Nyack College since 1994. Ms. Kim received her Bachelors, Masters, and Doctor of Musical Arts Degrees from The Juilliard School, where she was a scholarship student of Leonard Rose, Channing Robbins, and Harvey Shapiro.
TAMMY LUM, piano
Praised by the New York Concert Review for her “Bravura performance...brilliantly light finger work...confident and dramatic, bringing the audience to its feet," Tammy Lum is a versatile concert musician, multiple competition prize winner, music educator and competition judge. She made her U.S. solo debut at the Weill - Carnegie Recital Hall in 1990. Her recordings include “Piano Trios: Parker, Rachmaninoff, Chaminade, Liljestrand & Piazzolla” (2013) with the Amasi Trio, Trio In Residence of Nyack College, and her solo piano, “My Treasure Box” (1999), released under the label of Hugo Productions, Inc She is the founder and pianist of the Amasi Trio (Trio in Residence a Nyack College). Born and raised in Hong Kong, Dr. Lum received her higher education in the US: BM, MM - Eastman School of Music, participated in the Professional Studies Program at The Juilliard School, DMA - Manhattan School of Music. She has conducted master classes and workshops in the US, Hong Kong and China for young and college students, professionals and amateurs for over two decades. Dr. Lum has performed as soloist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Augusta, Georgia Symphony Orchestra, Sarah Lawrence Symphony Orchestra, Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra (as concerto competition winner), and Nyack College String Orchestra. She has captured top prizes at the New Orleans International Piano Competition, Leschetizky Foundation Competition, Five Town Music and Arts Foundation Competition, Manhattan School of Music Concerto Competition, Mieczyslaw Munz Foundation Scholarship Competition, William S. Boyd Competition and the Liederkranz Foundation Competition. She has appeared at Hong Kong’s International Arts Carnival, City Hall and Town Halls, New York’s Alice Tully Hall as well as at La Salle Cortot at l’ École Normale in Paris. Dr. Lum was selected to present and perform at the College Music Society’s 50th Anniversary National Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Hudson River Pianofest at Nyack College (http://nyack.edu/pianofest), NCTM (National Certified Teacher of Music) with the MTNA (Music Teachers National Association) and a member of the Rockland County Music Teachers Guild. Under her tutelage, her students have garnered high prizes in competitions and developed successful careers. She is also a frequent judge at competitions and auditions in the NY-NJ-CT tri state area. Her teachers have included Barry Snyder, John Perry, Bradford Gowan, Herbert Stessin, Constance Keene, Steven Mayer and Elena Tatulian. She is a tenured professor at Nyack College.