Kyung Wha Chung
Background information
Born	(1948-03-26)26 March 1948 (age 77) Seoul, South Korea
Occupation	Violinist
Korean name
Hangul	정경화
Hanja	鄭京和
RR	Jeong Gyeonghwa
MR	Chŏng Kyŏnghwa

Kyung Wha Chung (Korean: 정경화; born 26 March 1948) is a South Korean violinist.

Kyung Wha Chung was born inSeoul as the middle of the seven children in her family. Her father was an exporter, and her mother ran a restaurant. She began piano studies at age 4, and violin studies at age 7, where she proved more suited to the violin. She became recognized as a child prodigy,^[1] and by the age of 9 she was already playing theMendelssohn Violin Concerto with theSeoul Philharmonic Orchestra. As time progressed she won most of the famous music competitions inKorea. With her siblings, Chung toured around the country, performing music both as a soloist and as a part of an ensemble. As the children became famous in Korea, Chung's mother felt that it was too small a country for her children to further their musical careers^{[citation needed]}, and she decided to move to the United States. All of Chung's siblings played classical instruments and three of them would become professional musicians. Her younger brother,Myung-whun Chung is a conductor and a pianist, and her older sister,Myung-wha Chung is a cellist and teacher at theKorean National University of Arts in Seoul. The three of them began performing professionally later in their careers as theChung Trio.

At age thirteen, she arrived in theUnited States. She followed her older flautist sisterMyung-Soh Chung in attending theJuilliard School in New York, where she studied withIvan Galamian.^[1]

In 1967, Chung andPinchas Zukerman were the joint winners of theEdgar Leventritt Competition, the first time for such an outcome in the history of the competition.^[2] This prize led to several engagements in North America including performances with theChicago Symphony Orchestra and theNew York Philharmonic. She substituted forNathan Milstein for hisWhite House Gala when he became indisposed.

Her next big opportunity came in 1970 as a substitute forItzhak Perlman, with theLondon Symphony Orchestra. The success of this engagement led to many other performances in the United Kingdom and a recording contract with Decca/London. Her debut album withAndré Previn andLondon Symphony Orchestra, which coupled Tchaikovsky andSibelius concertos, brought her international attention, including the top recommendation on theBBC Radio 3'sBuilding a Library programme, which compared the various recordings of the Sibelius. In Europe, Chung continued her musical studies withJoseph Szigeti.

Her commercial recordings include core repertoire violin concerti, including Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, andBerg. She has recorded chamber works including theBrahms violin sonatas, Franck & Debussy sonatas, andRespighi &Strauss sonatas (withKrystian Zimerman, a recording which earned her aGramophone Award for Best Chamber Recording). Other recordings include Vivaldi'sFour Seasons, which was selected asGramophone's editorial choice, and the Brahms violin concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic underSimon Rattle.

In 1997, she celebrated the 30th anniversary of her international debut atBarbican Centre in London and in her hometown of Seoul, South Korea. In 2008, illness and injury caused her to temporarily halt her performing career^[3] Her next return to live performance was in London at theRoyal Festival Hall in December 2014.^[4] However, her reaction to the audience coughing, including a persistent cough from a child in her line of vision and her subsequent speaking to the child's parents, caused widely reported controversy at this performance.^[5]

Chung has two sons, Frederick and Eugene, from her past marriage to the British businessman Geoffrey Leggett. Their 1984 marriage ended in divorce.^[3]

In 2007, Chung joinedJuilliard as a member of the faculty of the school's Music and Pre-College Divisions. She received theKyung-Ahm Prize in 2005. In 2011, she received theHo-Am Prize in the Arts division in recognition of her 40-year-long career as a violinist and educator.

See Kyung-Wha Chung discography at discogs.com

• Kyung Wha Chung Official Website
• Kyung Wha Chung atallmusic
• Kyung-Wha Chung, "I have always welcomed children to my concerts".The Guardian, Music Blog, 9 December 2014
• "The Celebrated Korean Violinist Kyung Wha Chung speaking with Pete Myers", Radio Netherlands Archives, 1982

• 1948 births
• Living people
• Juilliard School alumni
• Leventritt Award winners
• Honorary members of the Royal Academy of Music
• Musicians from Seoul
• South Korean women classical violinists
• South Korean emigrants to the United States
• 21st-century South Korean classical violinists
• 21st-century South Korean women musicians
• Recipients of the Ho-Am Prize in the Arts

• Articles with short description
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• Use dmy dates from May 2021
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• Articles with unsourced statements from October 2012