Yuma Sung was born in the spring of 1989 in the Silicon Valley in Northern California, about one hour south from San Francisco. He is the oldest of the three boys in the family. He has always been very fond of music since the day he was born, anytime the music is on, he would listen to it very attentively.

He began studying classical piano at the age of six and was attracted to Jazz piano at the age of nine. After he attended David Benoit’s concert in the summer of 1998, who inspired Yuma and gave him a new musical direction. Yuma fell in love with improvising and jazz piano. He studied both classical and jazz piano with the well-known Bay Area jazz teachers, Don Haas and Smith Dobson. And currently, he is studying with Randy Masters at CSMA (www.arts4all.org).

Yuma has performed in numerous classical and jazz recitals. In 2000, two years after he started jazz piano, he won the first place in the San Jose Youth Jazz Competition. In the same year, he was invited to perform at the Steinway Piano Dinner Show with David Benoit, and the Yamaha Clavinova concert where he played duet with David Benoit.

In 2001, he was invited to be the jazz pianist for the Valley Christian Middle School’s band with a scholarship. Being involved in the many jazz activities, he has become a seasoned concert performer, winning outstanding soloist and music from many jazz competitions, some of the major ones includes Reno Jazz Festival, Central California Jazz Festival, San Jose Jazz Festival, etc. He also performed solo jazz piano at numerous other events like the Lance Armstrong Cancer Foundation Party, Steinway Piano Dinner Show, and others.

He started his first jazz composition when he was 10 years old, in the Spring of 2000. To-date, he has composed numerous original pieces. His first major piece was named “Walking On The Cool Side”. In December of 2001, he submitted one of his major original composition called “Looking Up” to DownBeat Magazine and won the first place in its 25th Original Composition Contest. This was a tune that Yuma wrote in loving memory of his two beloved jazz teachers – Don Hass and Smith Dobson.

Yuma is also very interested in film scoring. He is so captivated by film music that he is at least as much a listener as a viewer when watching a movie. His favorite pass time is listening to music and day dreaming. When he day dreams, music will come to his ears which ultimately flows into his original compositions and his improvising. Whenever he has any free time, you will find him at the corner of the family room, where his piano is, playing and composing his new pieces.

Yuma released his first CD titled “Looking Up” in May 2003, with David Benoit writing its liner notes. John Shifflett and Jason Lewis are part of his trio. It has a total of 8 pieces demonstrating his passions in contemporary Jazz: three of his originals (Looking Up, Gibberish, Smooth Samba), and one of his arrangements of “Somewhere in Time”. The other tunes are: “Stella by Starlight’, “Forrest Gump Suite”, “Rrecordame”, and “Miyuki”.

As Yuma polishes his talents in Music, he started to contribute his knowledge to help inspiring the other youth. He taught at the San Jose Jazz Camp this summer. In August 2003, Yuma is honored to be part of the Three Generation Concert with Dave Brubeck, David Benoit, and himself as the third generation at the Villa Montalvo venue.