Irwin Shung in Recital: The Goldberg Variations
Friday, April 10, 2026
11:30 PM
Location shared upon purchase of ticket(s).
Pianist Irwin Shung presents two monumental late works for the keyboard: J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, and Johannes Brahms’ Four Klavierstücke, Op. 119.
Written at opposite ends of the keyboard canon—Bach in 1741 and Brahms in 1892—these works offer strikingly different meditations at the twilight of two great careers. The Goldbergs, with their dazzling invention and architectural elegance, unfold through thirty variations on a single aria. By contrast, Brahms’s Op. 119 distills a lifetime of expression into an inward-looking cycle of miniatures.
Heard together, these works trace a line from baroque transcendence to late-romantic introspection, offering a panoramic view of the keyboard’s expressive power.
Pianist Irwin Shung presents two monumental late works for the keyboard: J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, and Johannes Brahms’ Four Klavierstücke, Op. 119.
Written at opposite ends of the keyboard canon—Bach in 1741 and Brahms in 1892—these works offer strikingly different meditations at the twilight of two great careers. The Goldbergs, with their dazzling invention and architectural elegance, unfold through thirty variations on a single aria. By contrast, Brahms’s Op. 119 distills a lifetime of expression into an inward-looking cycle of miniatures.
Heard together, these works trace a line from baroque transcendence to late-romantic introspection, offering a panoramic view of the keyboard’s expressive power.
Program
Goldberg Variations BWV 988 Johann Sebastian Bach
Four Klavierstücke, Op. 119 Johannes Brahms
Soloist
Irwin Shung
Dr. Irwin Shung, whose playing has been praised by State Magazine for its “ease, technique, and musicianship,” has performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Shung teaches at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University, in addition to serving as Artistic Director of The Resonance Project ever since its roots were originally put down in Seattle. Shung maintains an active musical profile both on the West Coast and in Cleveland, where he was recently selected as Height Arts' Artist of the Month. Currently in his third year as President of the Northeast Ohio Music Teachers Association, Shung's leadership over the organization has seen the development of dynamic new programs for hundreds of regional precollegiate music students in Cuyahoga, Geauga, and Lorain Counties.
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 distinguished teachers such as Marian Hahn (Peabody Conservatory), Leon Fleisher (Peabody Conservatory), Herbert Stessin (Julliard School), Gabriel Chodos (New England Conservatory), and Victoria Bogdashevskaya (Moscow Conservatory). Awards received include the Pauline Favin Memorial Award from the Peabody Conservatory of Music, and prizes in the Darius Milhaud Competition as well as the Young Artist International Piano Competition.
Appearances in 2023-24 include workshops and concerts in Bellevue, WA; Victoria, British Columbia; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Singapore, and numerous cities in Ohio. His complete recording of the first book of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier is available online, with the second book and the Goldberg Variations currently in-progress. Current projects include the construction of a chamber recording studio at the Artist House in South Euclid, as well Crescendo Cleveland, a music program for pre-college musicians.