Handel’s Messiah: An Exploration with Mia Chung and Richard Westerfield

Join us December 19 for a special online event as we explore George Frideric Handel’s Messiah. Our guides will be concert pianist Mia Chung, a Senior Fellow of the Trinity Forum, and maestro Richard Westerfield.

As we prepare our hearts for Christmas this Advent, it’s a fitting time to enter into the story of the humble child who grew up to be Christ Jesus, Savior of the world. Handel’s Messiah captures the wonder, the awe, and the joy of this event through the Baroque tradition. With music and conversation, Mia and Richard will explore with us the first part of the Messiah, which encompasses the Christmas story.

Thanks to co-host Octet Collaborative for their support of this event.

Pianist Mia Chung teaches a celebrated chamber music seminar at Harvard University with the Grammy Award-winning Parker String Quartet. She previously served as a Professor of Musical Studies and Performance at the Curtis Institute of Music from 2012-2023. Chung’s CD and DVD recordings of works by Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, and Lee Hyla among others, have earned high praise and awards. Chung received the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the highest national recognition for young concert artists, and was a first-prize winner at the Concert Artists Guild competition. She has since performed in major concert halls in the U.S., Canada, Central America, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, and the former Soviet Union. Her first short monograph, Chinese Émigré Composers and Divergent Modernisms: Chen Yi and Zhou Long was published in May 2024 by Cambridge University Press (Elements in Music Since 1945 Series). In the last several years, Mia has taken a great interest in the work of Christian study centers and has founded and led the Octet Collaborative, which promotes human flourishing at MIT. Dr. Chung earned her AB, magna cum laude in music, from Harvard College, a Master of Music degree from Yale University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Juilliard School.