Myung-whun Chung Myung-whun Chung

Myung-whun Chung was born in 1953. He began in music as a pianist and at seven performed with an orchestra in Seoul. He studied piano and conducting at the Mannes College and the Juilliard School in New York. In 1974 he won second prize in the piano category at the Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow.

His conducting path began in the United States. In 1979 he became assistant to the conductor Carlo Maria Giulini at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and two years later he was named associate conductor. In 1984 he became music director of the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra in Germany, his first permanent post. From 1989 to 1994 he worked as music director of the Opéra Bastille in Paris, France.

After that he led various orchestras in Europe and Asia. He led the orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Italy from 1997 to 2005, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France from 2000 to 2015. From 2005 to 2015 he led the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 2012 he has served as principal guest conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden in Germany, and since 2016 he has been honorary music director of the Tokyo Philharmonic in Japan. He received the French Legion of Honour, and in 2008 he became the first conductor to be a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

In May 2025, La Scala in Italy announced Myung-whun Chung as its next music director. He succeeds Riccardo Chailly, and this is the first time someone from Asia becomes the theater's music director. His term runs from 2027 to 2030. In 2023 he was also appointed the first Honorary Conductor of the Filarmonica della Scala. The initial contract period is three years.

In Korea, he has deep ties to the KBS Symphony Orchestra. He served as its 5th principal conductor in 1998, and in 2021 became the orchestra's first Conductor Laureate. In December 2025 he was appointed 10th music director, and in January 2026 gave his first subscription concert with Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 "Eroica." In April he conducted Bizet's opera Carmen in concert form. In 2023 he became the first artistic director of Classic Busan, which runs the Busan Opera House and Busan Concert Hall, and in October 2026 he conducted three times in Busan: a free outdoor KBS Symphony Orchestra concert, the concert opera Otello, and a Tokyo Philharmonic concert. On October 4, at the Sejong Center Grand Theater in Seoul, he conducted Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 with the KBS Symphony Orchestra and pianist Sunwook Kim as soloist, followed by Brahms's Symphony No. 2. The Herald Business described Myung-whun Chung as Sunwook Kim's "musical mentor."