Helen Sung Quartet to jazz up Clarion on Nov. 18

The Clarion at Brazosport College is preparing for an evening of jazz as the talented pianist and composer, Helen Sung, comes to Lake Jackson.

Sung, who will be performing with her band, the Helen Sung Quartet, will take the Clarion stage at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 18.

Sung hails from Houston, where she attended the High School for the Performing & Visual Arts.  An aspiring classical pianist before jazz intervened during undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin, Sung went on the graduate from the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance at the New England Conservatory, and win the Kennedy Center’s Mary Lou Williams Jazz Piano Competition.

Now based in New York City, Sung has worked with such luminaries as the late Clark Terry, Ron Carter, Victor Lewis, Steve Turre, Wayne Shorter and MacArthur Fellow Regina Carter.

Sung’s sixth release as leader, “Anthem For a New Day,” is her major-label debut on Concord Records. It topped jazz radio charts, reached No. 25 on the Billboard Jazz Album chart, garnered a SESAC Performance Activity Award and received critical acclaim.

“(Sung’s) music is adventurous, personal and a powerful force to be reckoned with in the jazz world,” the “International Review of Music” said of Sung.

The Helen Sung Quartet will also be providing special educational outreach programs for selected local schools, as well as performing in the Brazosport College Music Department’s Jazztravaganza program on Nov. 17, also at the Clarion.

Tickets for the show are $35 for adults, $30 for seniors and Brazosport College employees, and $10 for students and children.

For more information or to purchase tickets, contact the Clarion Box Office at (979) 230-3156 or online at www.brazosport.edu/clarion.