Pianist David Fung and Violist Cong Wu Join Manhattan School of Music Faculty

Fung and Wu have already begun accepting students for the 2024–25 academic year

The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) in New York, announced that pianist David Fung and violist Cong Wu will join its College faculty, effective immediately.

Fung has joined MSM’s piano faculty, which is led by Co-Heads Alexandre Moutouzkine and Inesa Sinkevych, while Wu has joined the Classical Strings faculty, led by Chair Nicholas Mann.

“David and Cong are wonderful new faculty additions to our impressive and inspiring Piano and Strings departments at MSM,” says MSM Executive Vice President and Provost Joyce Griggs. “As MSM continues to build on its 106 years of excellence, it is exciting to welcome these talented and creative artist-educators to the School – and in the case of Cong, who earned his doctorate at MSM, to welcome him home. The respective track records of these gifted musicians and teachers, combined with their belief in the mission of MSM, a strong desire to awaken students’ individual artistic voices, and their commitment to our Cultural Inclusion initiatives, will greatly enhance the College faculty and the School writ large.”

Violist Cong Wu He earned his Doctor of Musical Arts with the Helen Cohn Award from the Manhattan School of Music. In September 2018, he joined the New York Philharmonic as Assistant Principal Viola, The Norma and Lloyd Chazen Chair. A former prize winner at the Primrose International Viola Competition and the Tertis International Viola Competition, Wu has collaborated with renowned artists such as Christoph Eschenbach, David Finckel, Hilary Hahn, Itzhak Perlman, Peter Wiley, Pinchas Zukerman, and American String Quartet. His festival engagements have included the Marlboro Music Festival, the Perlman Music Program, Music@Menlo, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, and the Chestnut Hill Concerts.

A Steinway Artist, pianist David Fung garnered international attention as a laureate of the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Brussels and the Arthur Rubinstein Piano International Masters Competition in Tel Aviv. He was the first piano graduate of the prestigious Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles where he studied with John Perry, going on to work with Peter Frankl and Claude Frank at Yale University, and Arie Vardi at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hannover. With a repertoire of over 60 concertos, Fung regularly appears with ensembles such as the Cleveland Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, the Israel Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Orchestra of Belgium, and the San Francisco Symphony, among others.