Jay Pun

Jay Pun

Music

Jay Pun is a Charlottesville native who returned to the area in 2003 after graduating from Berklee College of Music (B.M. in Professional Music) in Boston. Jay’s primary instrument is guitar & phin (a native 3-string instrument of Thailand) and he regularly performs with violinist Morwenna Lasko as the duo “Morwenna Lasko & Jay Pun.”  The duo has shared shows with a variety of great musicians including Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, Julian Lage, Vusi Mahlasela, Dave Matthews Band, The Avett Brothers, Ralph Stanley, and have also played at great venues and festivals such as The Kennedy Center, FloydFest, The Festy, Rockflies radio broadcast (Milan, Italy), Festival delle Colline, Musicastrada, and many others.

In 2014, Mr. Pun composed and scored original music with Morwenna for a film funded by NASA called “The Birth of a Star and Her Entourage” which is shown in planetariums across the world. In 2015 Mr. Pun and Morwenna also released their highly anticipated CD, “The Hollow” internationally, coupled with a tour all over Italy, including Charlottesville’s sister city, Poggio a Caiano.

Mr. Pun co-founded Fingerdance Studio with Morwenna, where they teach guitar, violin, viola, bass, songwriting, and music theory. Mr. Pun loves teaching music theory and performance at Renaissance School. In his other world, he helps run three restaurants with his family, Thai Cuisine & Noodle House, CHIMM, and CHIMM St. inside Dairy Market. He also serves on the board of the Eko Ise Music Program Advisory Board at The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center and the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau. His latest community contribution is presenting Virginia’s annual “VeryAsian VA” Celebration which showcases Asian American culture here in central Virginia.

Most recently Mr. Pun completed his first children’s book “Som Tum & Sticky Rice” about the popular Thai dish, which will be released later this year.

Mr. Pun loves spending time with his beautiful wife, two daughters, and their King Charles Spaniel, Romeo.