Myung Whun Chung is a South Korean pianist, conductor, and music director. He made his piano debut in Seoul at the age of seven. In 1961, he went to the United States and studied piano with Nadia Reisenberg and conducting with Carl Bamberger at Mannes College in New York. He completed postgraduate studies at the Juilliard School in 1978 and made his conducting debut in Seoul in 1971.
At the 1974 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Chung represented the United States and won second prize as a pianist, behind Andrei Gavrilov. He was listed as Myung Whun Chung, the name under which he became known in the Soviet Union. A vinyl record of his competition performance of Saint-Saëns’s Second Piano Concerto was released under that name. From 1978 to 1980, he trained as a conductor with Carlo Maria Giulini at the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Chung became music director and principal conductor of the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1984, and served as a guest conductor at Florence’s Teatro Comunale from 1987 to 1992. He was music director of the Paris National Opera from 1989 to 1994, the French Radio Philharmonic Orchestra from 2000, and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra from 2005. From 1997, he was principal conductor of the Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia. He has also conducted and recorded with major orchestras around the world.
His operatic repertoire includes works by Mozart, Donizetti, Rossini, Wagner, Verdi, Bizet, Puccini, Massenet, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich. He is especially known for his interpretations of Olivier Messiaen, including the Turangalîla-Symphonie and the opera Saint Francis of Assisi. Messiaen dedicated his Concert for Four to Chung in 1990. Chung was among the first performers to present works by Isang Yun in Europe. His recordings include music by Hector Berlioz, Ludwig van Beethoven, Giuseppe Verdi, Antonín Dvořák, Henri Dutilleux, Maurice Duruflé, Messiaen, Carl Nielsen, Prokofiev, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Gioachino Rossini, Camille Saint-Saëns, Igor Stravinsky, Gabriel Fauré, and Dmitri Shostakovich.
Chung received the Arturo Toscanini Prize in 1989, was named Person of the Year by the Association of French Music and Theatre Critics in 1991, and received the Legion of Honor in 1992. UNESCO named him Person of the Year in 1995, and he received a Grammy Award in 1996. He became an honorary member of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome in 2002 and received the honorary title of Ambassador of Korean Culture. His sisters, violinist Kyung Wha Chung and cellist Myung-Wha Chung, perform with him as the Chung Trio.