Violinist Chung Kyung-wha

By Kim Bo-eun

World-renowned violinist Chung Kyung-wha is to become a chair professor at the music college of Ewha Womans University in Seoul, starting this month.

Ewha is the alma mater of Chung’s late mother and also a place of fond memories for the musician.

As a young girl, Chung often visited the school not only to attend performances but also to play, since Ewha was the only place at the time able to host professional concerts.

“I vividly remember the performances I went to see at Ewha, including contralto Marian Anderson’s concert in 1957,” said Chung.

She recalls a concert with her brother Chung Myung-whun, at Ewha’s Main Hall in the winter of 1967, after winning the Edgar Leventritt Competition that year.

“All of the 4,000 seats were full as well as the aisles where thousands of people were sitting on newspapers to watch. It was an incredible experience that I will never forget,” she said.

The 64-year-old violinist is proud of her late mother for passing on her passion for music to her children. She says although she has played with the world’s top conductors and orchestras, her mother showed the greatest joy when she became a professor at the Julliard School of Music.

“I am thrilled and very grateful to be able to teach at her alma mater,” said Chung. She is to teach a master class for students at the music college.

Since her success at the Leventritt Competition in 1967, Chung has drawn critical acclaim around the world and had a successful career as a musician for the past 40 years. An unfortunate finger injury in 2005 caused her to stop playing professionally for five years.

However, the Great Mountains Music Festival and recital in 2011 and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra’s New Year’s concert this year opened another phase in her musical career.

Chung’s siblings are also eminent musicians; her older sister Myung-hwa is a cellist, her younger brother Myung-whun a conductor and pianist. The three have played together as an ensemble, and are well-known as the Chung Trio.

Chung will hold her first concert as an Ewha professor at Kim Young-ui Hall at the university today, presenting an unaccompanied full-length work by Bach, which has been a long-cherished dream for her.