Myung-Whun Chung started to study the piano at the age of four and by the time he was seven was performing with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. He moved to the USA to continue his studies at the Mannes School in New York, where he was a pupil of Nadia Rosenberger (piano) and Carl Bamberger (conducting). After graduating from Mannes in 1975, where he majored in piano playing, Chung went on to attend the Juilliard School until 1978. Long before this he had experienced considerable success as a pianist in numerous competitions: he won the New York Times/WQXR piano competition in 1970, was placed second in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1974, and was a finalist in the 1975 Leeds Piano Competition. While at Juilliard he conducted the...