Myung-Whun Chung
The former Music Director of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Myung-Whun Chung, 64, will return to his native country’s music scene as Music Director of the Lotte Youth Orchestra, which is to be set up later this year. The inaugural concert is scheduled to take place in January 2018.
The orchestra will be financed by the Lotte Foundation for Arts, run by the South Korean-Japanese business conglomerate Lotte. Chung and the foundation signed a one-year contract, but both sides seem to consider the job as a long-term project.
In addition to Chung, members of the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra will join the orchestra as coaching staff.
The orchestra will be resident at the Lotte Concert Hall in Seoul, itself located at the Lotte World Mall. The hall was opened in 2016 and has 2000 seats. The acoustics was created by Nagata Acoustics, a company that designed concert halls such as Suntory Hall in Japan, Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles, and Philharmonie de Paris in France.
