Life and Education
Ching's distinctive musical language owes much to the diversity of his cultural background and education. He was born to a Chinese Buddhist family in the former Spanish-American colony of the Philippines, and received a Catholic education while growing up next door to his grandfather's private museum of ancient Chinese scrolls. He began composing before he was ten and remained self-taught until he went to the United States to study music and Sinology at Harvard University. There he received the John Harvard Scholarship twice for "academic achievements of the highest distinction", and the Harvard Detur Prize, the university's oldest prize for academic excellence. He graduated with a double magna cum laude, submitting a graduation thesis on the sumptuary laws of the Ming dynasty based on extensive research into primary sources. Afterwards he went to England to read law, philosophy, and composition at Cambridge and London Universities. For several years he taught music at the University of London, eventually becoming Lecturer-in-Music there. He took British citizenship in 2004, and now resides most of the year in Berlin with his wife, the Spanish-Philippine soprano Andión Fernández, for whom the vocal parts in his principal works were created. They have a son and a daughter.
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