Myung-Whun Chung

Myung-Whun Chung is among the most prominent conductors of his generation. Also a prize-winning pianist, he counts the music of Olivier Messiaen among his specialties. In 2025, Chung was named the music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy. He has a vast recording catalog that is oriented toward conducting but also includes innovative piano releases; in 2023, he conducted the Staatskapelle Dresden on the album Beethoven, Brahms, Franck with pianist Sunwook Kim. Chung was born in Seoul on January 22, 1953. His sisters -- cellist Myung-Wha Chung and violinist Kyung-Wha Chung -- became major international classical music stars, and all three have performed together as the Chung Trio. Myung-Whun Chung made his performing debut at seven in Seoul. The following year, he moved to the U.S., attending the Mannes School of Music and later the Julliard School in New York. He studied piano with Nadia Reisenberg and conducting with Carl Bamberger, also taking piano lessons from Maria Curcio. Chung scored a breakthrough with a second prize on piano in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in the Soviet Union in 1974. He continued studying conducting at Juilliard and led several youth orchestras, becoming assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Carlo Maria Giulini and then associate conductor in 1980. An early Chung recording came in 1983 with Sweden's Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, in Carl Nielsen's Symphony No. 2 ("The Four Temperaments") and Aladdin Suite. The following year, he became the music director and principal conductor of the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra in West Germany. Chung has been active as an operatic conductor for many years. In New York, he led a new Metropolitan Opera production of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra in 1986. He served as the principal guest conductor of the Teatro Communale in Florence from 1987 to 1992 and has cultivated deep ties with Italian musicians. In 1989, he became music director of the Opéra-Paris-Bastille, where he conducted Messiaen's Saint-François d'Assise and became known as a specialist in the music of that composer. Chung also was active in symphonic music, holding principal conductor posts with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Asia Philharmonic Orchestra. He remained active in Korea, serving as music director of the Korean Broadcasting Symphony. After a stint at the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, he became the principal conductor of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in 2005, remaining there until 2015. He has supported contemporary Korean music and has recorded several albums of music by Unsuk Chin. Chung continued to record frequently with various groups, including the Staatskapelle Dresden, where he served as principal guest conductor beginning in 2012. With that group, he appeared on the album Beethoven, Brahms, Franck in 2023 with pianist Sunwook Kim. He also conducted two albums featuring tenor Andrea Bocelli in the early 2020s, as well as mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli's 2024 release Casta Diva. Including compilations, his recording catalog numbers more than 300 releases. In 2025, Chung was named music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan. ~ James Manheim, Rovi