Collaborative Pianist/Vocal Coach, (Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University)

Born in Seoul, Korea, Saffron Y. Chung now considers New York City her home.  She chose her path in music early at Oberlin College, where she was the first recipient of a double major in Piano Performance and Vocal Accompanying.  She also has Masters of Music in Accompanying from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music. 

For many years, Saffron has worked as an assistant conductor, vocal coach, accompanist, preparing hundreds of singers for auditions, concerts, opera performances and recitals. She is a former Adjunct Faculty in Accompanying at William Paterson State University, and a former staff accompanist at Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, and Mannes School of Music.  She led a workshop of Brahms lieder for the voice department at Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts. Then, participated in an admission audition tour to Beijing Conservatory to help select two singers for the full scholarship spot at the HKAPA. She has given a seminar for the graduate Accompanying majors at Hansei University in Korea, and is currently working with the Opera Department at Rutgers University preparing Midsummer Night’s Dream by Britten.

She was a guest artist of the Atelier Concert Series, Paris, France, where she performed an art song recital with mezzo soprano, Julie Devere, in a program of all American living composers works. Her current projects include a professional solo piano recording that is a collection of transcriptions and arrangements of art songs, to be released in 2022.