Chung Myung-whun has been appointed Music Director of the KBS Symphony Orchestra, South Korea’s national broadcast orchestra. His three-year term will begin in January 2026, coinciding with the orchestra’s 70th anniversary.
Chung’s appointment in Seoul follows another major career milestone. In May, Teatro alla Scala announced that he will become its next Artistic Director from 2027, making him the first Asian and only the second non-Italian to hold the post in the institution’s 247-year history.
The appointment marks Chung’s return to the KBS Symphony Orchestra, with which he has maintained a long artistic relationship spanning several decades. He first collaborated with the orchestra in 1995, conducting a special concert at the United Nations General Assembly Hall, and later served as its principal conductor in 1998. In 2021, the orchestra named him its first Honorary Laureate Conductor, a role through which he has continued to appear regularly in concerts, including the “Masters Series.”
According to the orchestra, Chung will oversee the overall artistic direction of the KBS Symphony Orchestra during his tenure, including medium- and long-term artistic planning, as it enters its eighth decade of activity.
The announcement comes 18 months after the orchestra confirmed it was in the final stages of discussions with Chung regarding the position. In the interim, the conductor has been serving as Music Director of Classic Busan, the municipal body responsible for operating the Busan Concert Hall, which opened in June, and the Busan Opera House, scheduled to open in 2027.
Chung’s first concert as Music Director of the KBS Symphony Orchestra will take place on 15 January at the Hwaseong Arts Center in Gyeonggi-do, marking the venue’s inaugural performance. The programme includes Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with violinist Leonidas Kavakos and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”). The same programme will be repeated the following day at Seoul’s Lotte Concert Hall.
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