Joon Sung Jun is an internationally acclaimed cellist, widely known for his musical integrity and world class artistry, who has given hundreds of concerts, with solo appearances in concertos by Bach, Beethoven, Bloch, Boccherini, Brahms, Dvorak, Elgar, Goltermann, Haydn, Prokofiev, Saint-Saëns, and Tchaikovsky. He has performed with various orchestras, including the Kazakhstan National Philharmonic, Uol San Symphony, Ma San Symphony, Pusan Symphony, Korean Philharmonic, InCheon Philharmonic, Catholic Boys Town, Symphonieta, and the Korean American Symphony, where he made his Walt Disney Concert Hall debut in 2007, and where he also performed the Beethoven Triple Concerto with Henry Gronnier and Norman Krieger in July 2012.
He has collaborated in concertos, chamber music and orchestral symphonies with Isaac Stern, Yo-Yo Ma, Yefim Bronfman, Itzhak Perlman, Ivry Gitlis, and under the baton of luminaries Zubin Mehta, James Levine, Simon Rattle, Nan Sae Gum, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. He has given recitals and performed in chamber concerts throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia; including collaborating with institutes like the Paris Conservatory, the Kazakhstan National Music Conservatory as well as many others. He started his international competition winning career in 1996, with acclaimed performances at the Dong A International Competition, and the Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity, which brought immediate invitations to prestigious performing art centers along with recital and concerto concert tours. His live concerts have been broadcasted on television and radio stations, such as PBS, KCET, KBS, MBC, 91.5 FM KUSC, and his recordings have included collaborations with Korean singer Eun Mi Lee, as well as being featured in South Korean movies and television drama series.
As a professor, he has given master classes in the United States, Europe and Asia and has taught and lectured in chamber music ensemble and literature at such institutes like California State University of Los Angeles, California Institute of the Arts, Pusan University, Dong-I University, Kyung Sung University, and the Kazakhstan National Music Conservatory.
Jun’s cello students have won first prize in competitions such as, Edith Knox Young Artists’ Showcase competition, Marina Del Rey-Westchester Symphony Young Artist Competition, Brentwood Westwood Symphony Young Artist Competition, Torrance Symphony Concerto Competition, PSYO Concerto Competition, Music Teacher’s National Association Solo Competition, American String Teachers Association Solo Competition, Los Angeles Violoncello Society Competition, Kollaboration Classical Competition, South Coast Symphony Concerto Competitions, as well as numerous orchestra auditions. His students have been accepted to prestigious colleges as schcalarship and full scholarship award recipients, such as The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, New England Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, Peabody Conservatory of Music, Indiana University, UCLA, USC, Yale University, and more.
In his homeland of South Korea, Jun has a contract to be a soloist and give master classes with the Prestige Youth Orchestras as their principal professor throughout the country, each year. He also teaches and performs in major festivals in Italy, France, Kazakhstan, New York, Beverly Hills, and Montecito where Jun was on the faculty with Ivry Gitlis, Aaron Rosen, Ida Haendel and Janos Starker. He is also a member of trio FUGU, which has received an invitation for a residency at the Vietnam National Music Conservatory to participate in the Chamber Music Side by Side project set for the spring of 2013.
Jun has completed all of his studies and received his degrees at the University of Southern California under the tutelage of Eleonore Schoenfeld, and has continued studying with Gerhard Mantel, Ronald Leonard, David Soyer, Lynn Harrell, as well as many other distinguished musicians.
Jun is the founder of Amici Concert Artists: a non-profit music organization, a board member of Peninsula Symphony, records movie sound tracks for Warner Brothers Motion Pictures, 20 Century Fox, Disney, Sony Pictures, and is also the Artistic Director of Junior Chamber Music, which concert toured Salzburg and Mozarteum in 2012. He has been a cello professor and chairperson for instrument at Shepherd University since 2002, and has been a faculty member of California State University of Long Beach since 2007.