Seoul Phil Orchestra extends contract with conductor Chung Myung-hoon by 1 year

The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra’s board of trustees said on Tuesday that it decided to extend by one year the contract with Art Director Chung Myung-whun, 61, whose term was set to end at the end of this month.

The orchestra’s board made resolution to this effect at its regular meeting on the day, and decided to keep the terms and conditions of the contract with Chung the same as before. The contract with the conductor should be approved by the Seoul mayor after the board’s approval.

Chung has signed a three-year contract as art director with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra three times since 2005. This year, he was paid a total of 1.4 billion won (1.28 million U.S. dollars), which includes an annual base salary of 220 million won (200,000 dollars), plus 49 million won (44,700 dollars) per concert.

The board said, “The contract has been extended only by one year because the orchestra needed to review compensation for Chung and changes of performance schedules due to his personal reasons, issues that have been raised so far, and we thus needed time to adjust conditions for his contract.” Lim Dong-wook, a member the boards’ orchestra and the head of the orchestra’s performance division, said, “There were consultations with Director Chung about one-year extension of his contract in advance, but agreement has not been reached yet.” Currently, Chung is staying overseas.

Meanwhile, the board decided to accept, without taking any disciplinary measure, the resignation of its president Park Hyun-jung, 52, who announced to resign on Monday.