La Scala taps South Korean maestro Chung Myung-whun as music director

MILAN – The Teatro alla Scala in Milan, one of the world’s most revered opera houses, announced on May 12 that its next music director would be South Korean conductor Chung Myung-whun.

Chung, 72, a veteran who has led renowned ensembles in Europe and Asia, will succeed Italian maestro Riccardo Chailly, who started in 2015. Chung will be the first Asian – and one of the first conductors born outside Italy – to serve as music director in La Scala’s 247-year history. He will take the podium in late 2026 for an initial term of about three years.

The selection of Chung is one of the most important decisions under Italian arts executive Fortunato Ortombina, who took over as superintendent and artistic director of La Scala in February. He nominated Chung for music director, and La Scala’s board unanimously approved the choice on May 12, said the opera house in a statement.

The statement called Chung, who has been a regular at La Scala since 1989, “one of the most beloved artists among the Milanese public”.

Chung has conducted 84 performances of nine operas at La Scala, in addition to 141 concerts. He holds the record for the most appearances at the opera house, aside from music directors, according to La Scala. In 2023, he was named honorary conductor of the Filarmonica della Scala in Milano, an ensemble of La Scala musicians, the first maestro to receive that designation.

The statement called Chung, who has appeared with La Scala singers and musicians on global tours, “the conductor who has most contributed to the international prestige of the Teatro alla Scala, excluding its music directors”.

Representatives for La Scala and Chung did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Chung, who lives in France and South Korea, was born in Seoul and moved at age eight to the United States, where he studied music. He has led many prestigious ensembles, including the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. He has visited North Korea to push for closer cultural ties between the North and South.

At La Scala, Chung will serve under Ortombina, whose tenure is still taking shape. Ortombina was chosen to lead La Scala during a nationalistic time for the arts in Italy, with government leaders making clear they favour home-grown talent over foreigners for major cultural posts.

But the cultural and political establishment did not stand in the way of La Scala’s selection of Chung.

“La Scala has the total right and autonomy of choice; I do not intervene on this,” Mr Alessandro Giuli, the Italian minister of culture, told reporters, according to a report in La Repubblica, one of the country’s major newspapers. NYTIMES