Myung-WhunChung

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  • Conductor

About Myung-Whun

Music Director Designate: Teatro alla Scala (from 2027) Music Director: KBS Symphony Orchestra Direttore Emeritus: Filarmonica della Scala Artistic Director: Busan Concert Hall and Opera House Principal Guest Conductor: Staatskapelle Dresden Honorary Music Director: Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra Honorary Music Director: Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France

Myung-Whun Chung’s long and outstanding musical career is marked by his recent appointment as Music Director Designate of Teatro alla Scala (from 2027). He is Music Director of KBS Symphony Orchestra in Seoul; inaugural Direttore Emeritus at Filarmonica della Scala in Milano; inaugural Principal Guest Conductor of Dresden Staatskapelle and Honorary Music Director at Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris. Maestro Chung is also the Artistic Director at the new Busan Opera and Concert Hall in South Korea which hosted its grand opening Festival in June 2025.

Maestro's 25/26 season includes extensive international touring with Filarmonica della Scala, Tokyo Philharmonic and Staatskapelle Dresden, Verdi's Requiem with Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia as well as symphonic weeks with his titled orchestras. As Music Director Designate of La Scala, he conducts Bizet's Carmen, as well as reuniting once again with the Filarmonica for a symphonic programme including play-directing Beethoven's Triple Concerto and Brahms' Symphony no. 4.

Maestro Chung held titles as Music Director at the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of Teatro Comunale of Florence, Principal Conductor of the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and Music Director of the Opéra de Paris-Bastille.

Maestro Chung is the recipient of numerous prizes, including Commandeur de Légion d’Honneur from France, Commentatore dell’ordine della stella d’Italia, the Premio Abbiati for outstanding conducting at La Fenice in Venice, and Keumkwan, the highest culture award of the Korean government. In 2008 Mo. Chung was designated the first conductor named as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Myung-Whun is based in France and Korea

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Contact

For availability and general enquiries:

Martin Campbell-White
Laura Baker

Laura Baker

Senior Artist Manager

For contracts, logistics and press:

Joy Pidsley

Joy Pidsley

Associate Artist Manager

Representation

General Management with Askonas Holt Partner managers: Italy: Ornella Cogliolo

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Season Highlights

Aug 2025
Europe Tour
Works by Chen, Ravel, Prokofiev, Saint-Saens Concerts at Usher Hall (Edinburgh), Saffron Hall (Saffron Walden), Palacio de Festivales de Cantabria (Santander), Koblenz and Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg). China National Centre for Performaing Arts Orchestra Bruce Liu, piano Hansjorg Albrecht, organ
Sep 2025
South Korea and Japan Tour
Works by Verdi, Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky Concerts in Seoul, Busan, Sapporo, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Aichi and Osaka Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala Mao Fujita, piano
Oct 2025
Teatro alla Scala
Rachmaninov, Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor, Op. 18 Tchaikovsky, Symphony No.6 in B minor Op. 74 'Pathetique'
Oct 2025 - Nov 2025
Europe Tour
Works by Bernstein, Gershwin, Prokofiev and Stravinsky Concerts in Berlin, Budapest, Antwerp, Toulouse, Barcelona, Vienna, Lugano and Dusseldorf Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra
Dec 2025
Philharmonie de Paris
Tchaikovsky, Rococo Variations Op. 33 Mahler, Symphony No.1 in D major 'Titan' Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France Jaemin Han, cello
Jan 2026 - Feb 2026
Kulturpalast, Dresden and South Korea Tour
Weber, Der Freischutz Overture Schumann, Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 54 Dvorak, Symphony No. 9 in E minor Op. 95 'From the New World' Concerts in Dresden and Seoul Staatskapelle Dresden Yunchan Lim, piano
Jun 2026
Teatro alla Scala
Bizet, Carmen Teatro alla Scala Orchestra and Chorus
Jun 2026
Teatro alla Scala
Beethoven, Triple Concerto in C major, Op.56 Brahms, Symphony No.4 in E minor, Op. 98

Photos

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News

Press

  • Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, European Tour

    Berlin, Budapest, Antwerp, Toulouse, Barcelona, Vienna, Lugano, Dusseldorf
    Oct 2025 - Nov 2025

    • in the most popular, headlong sections like Mambo and Cool, Chung maintained his lucidity and let the percussion sing, accentuating the score’s proximity to contemporary vanguards with shifting and juxtaposed rhythms. Chung’s attention to orchestration was reiterated throughout the performance, strings and woodwinds being at the forefront. After the conciliatory C major of the ballet’s finale, Chung completed the dance-themed evening with a sweeping encore, Brahms' Hungarian Dance no. 1, greeted with prolonged applause.

    • The precise but restrained gesture of a veteran like Myung-Whun Chung, who conducted both parts without a score, also foreshadowed great things. Once again, Chung's energetic but not at all expansive or histrionic baton knew how to extract from the Japanese orchestra a sound of maximum force but zero stridentness....with all the granite sound that Chung extracted, the overall reading enjoyed just the right transparency so that the infinite range of colors, timbres, contrasting and amalgamated rhythms could be heard.

      • Ara

    • Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring was a model of balance, with a conductor who shaped rhythm and emphasized the variable of color in the immense Stravinskian palette of the first part of the work, treating sound and expression in just the right measure. The melodic intensity, the very well-chosen contributions of the violas and the effectiveness of the brass, and the fine woodwind soloists, built moments of great beauty throughout the work. It is one of the particularities of this veteran conductor, who translates the work into an inner dimension far removed from the spectacular and the banal, and who does so with a very disciplined and high-quality orchestra.

      • La Vanguardia

    • An orchestral firework display that will be remembered for a long time. With extremely minimalist movements, he spurred the musicians on to peak performances. And what emerged was simply music, not a technical execution of the score's meter. Whether delicate pianissimos or wild passages – not for a second was there any sense of stagnation.

    • This sensation of total physical presence is not only contributed to by the agile, dynamic, and muscular appearance of Chung's physique, but also by the gesture that expresses it in action. Effective gesture, achieved with an economy of superfluous movements capable of pouring all the energy into the musical act. Energy that is returned by an orchestra prepared with absolute discipline and concentration. ...the Chung effect was hypnotic, not only because he conducted such a complex score from memory, but for the Cartesian sobriety of subdivisions and anticipations with which he moved the orchestra, demonstrating a thorough and intense concerting work.

      • Corriere del Ticino

Discography