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Irwin Shung in Recital: The Goldberg Variations

Friday, April 10, 2026

11:30 PM

Location shared upon purchase of ticket(s).

Plymouth Church UCC, Herr Chapel 

2860 Coventry Rd, Shaker Heights, OH 44120

Pianist Irwin Shung presents Bach’s monumental Goldberg Variations. In a pre-concert talk, Shung offers a glimpse beneath the surface, illuminating the work’s inner world—from the near-grotesque “Black Pearl” Variation to the fantastical hand-crossing arabesques and the farcical Quodlibet.

See hors d’oeuvres menu

Pianist Irwin Shung presents Bach’s monumental Goldberg Variations. In a pre-concert talk, Shung offers a glimpse beneath the surface, illuminating the work’s inner world—from the near-grotesque “Black Pearl” Variation to the fantastical hand-crossing arabesques and the farcical Quodlibet.

See hors d’oeuvres menu

Program

Variaciones del fandango español Félix Máximo López 

 

Harpsichord Sonata in G major  Marianne Martinez

Sonata El jardín de Aranjuez José Herrando

Sonata in G minor G 29 op 5 no 5 Luigi Boccherini 

Folia Variations Pedro Lopes Nogueira  

Canarios Gaspar Sanz, arr. Brian Kay

Goldberg Variations BWV 988  Johann Sebastian Bach

Soloist

Irwin Shung

Irwin Shung, pianist

-“…lets the notes ring, as if painting with the reverberation.  Like a gradually cresting wave, the intensity peaks…”

Cleveland Classical


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 keyboard ensembles at Case Western Reserve University, in addition to serving as Artistic Director of The Resonance Project since its founding in Seattle.  He maintains an active musical profile both on the American West Coast and in Northeast Ohio, where he was recently selected as Heights Arts’ Artist of the Month.  As President of the Northeast Ohio Music Teachers Association, Shung oversaw the development of dynamic new programs for hundreds of regional precollegiate music students in Cuyahoga, Geauga, and Lorain Counties.


Shung received his D.M.A. in Piano Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2015, where he studied with Dr. Daniel Shapiro. Other teachers include Marian Hahn (Peabody Conservatory), Leon Fleisher (Peabody Conservatory), Herbert Stessin (Juilliard 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 a win in the Darius Milhaud Competition.  Shung recently premiered his work for solo piano, Seven Chinese Characters, alongside a live painting by the internationally renowned artist Li Qian.  In October 2026, he will present a recital inspired by with the Cleveland Museum of Art in conjunction with its upcoming exhibition Ten Kings of Hell.

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