Sliding Seoul Philharmonic can’t find stand-ins for Chung

Apart from quick-fix Christoph Eschenbach, who flew in to open the season, the Seoul Philharmonic is struggling to replace its forced-out music director, Myung Whun Chung, and to fill its seats.

They had to cut top prices from 120,000 won ($99) with Chung to 70,000 won with Eschy and they haven’t been able to find anyone of quality to perform Mahler Sixth, so they are employing a staff conductor.

‘We managed to find a world-renowned maestro for the concerts; however, the maestro showed concerns over preparing the Mahler symphony in such a short time and requested a change of program,’ said an orchestra official today. ‘With much consideration, we decided to maintain the program and believe that our associate conductor Choi [Soo-yeoul], who has been working closely with the orchestra for a long time and has high understanding of the members, is the right person to conduct the upcoming concerts.’

It can only get worse.

Choi Soo-yeoul