Howie Jung's Biography

Howie's Early Years:

Howie started piano lessons in Huntington N.Y. at the age of 7. At the age of 9 he started playing trumpet in the school band. Private piano and trumpet lessons continued through High School.  In 10th grade Howie joined the High School choir, and started playing in his first rock band on a Farfisa organ. In 11th grade he made the Suffolk County, N.Y. All-County Choir. In 12th grade he made The New York State All-State Choir.

Howie's Youthful Days:

Determined to be a Veterinarian, Howie started college at Iowa State University. He still practiced piano, and sang in the Iowa State Choir, which included a performance with the Leningrad Symphony. He gave up trumpet due to small dorm rooms with no sound proofing. In his junior year he joined some local musicians and started a rock band playing local clubs. It was in the rock band that a member turned him on to Art Tatum. This totally blew away his previous conception that Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman were the best piano players around. He began jazz piano lessons with Guitarist Don Archer in Des Moines, IA and start playing jazz locally. After graduation from Iowa State, he joined various Top 40 bands and eventually left Iowa to study at Berklee School of Music. He continued playing jazz, rock, Top 40 and General Business gigs in the Boston area. He studied with pianist Mike Marra, and voice teacher Gregor Shelkan in Boston. He hooked up with vocalist Ruth Condon there and spent the next 4 years performing around New England and Florida as the duo "Potpourri".

Howie's Midlife Crisis:

Convinced that he had to learn computers to deal with the new concept of MIDI, Howie studied computer programming at Bridgewater State College in Bridgewater, MA. He did very well and was offered a real job (yikes!) in Harrisburg, PA. It was more money than he ever made as a musician, so off he went to PA. Much to his relief, the first night he was in Harrisburg, he discovered the Central Pennsylvania Friends of Jazz. For the next seven years Howie played on the local jazz circuit in central PA as a solo artist and with jazz ensembles. He also played with his first Latin band, and studied with classical pianist Julia Benfer in Harrisburg..

Howie's Current Life:

Howie accepted an offer to move to the Washington D.C. area and work in Absolute Pitch Studios. The studio job only lasted a few months, but he established musical connections and returned to playing jazz and programming computers. Now Howie is a freelance artist in the Washington D.C. area and plays solo, and with Unstrung and the Howie Jung Trio. Howie has played with numerous bands including: Radio King Orchestra, Vic Simas Big Band, Swing Shift, James Bazen Pizza Band, Olney Big Band, High Society, Doc Scantlin and his Imperial Palms Orchestra, The Frankie Condon Big Band, the Grapefruit Kings, The New Market swing band, and The Marvin Reitz Big Band.

Howie teaches private piano lessons to all ages of students.

Howie also serves on the City of Rockville's Cultural Arts Commission.