Chin Un-suk, Berlin-based composer of contemporary classical music, on Tuesday said that she has decided to leave the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, where she has been its composer-in-residence since 2006.

Chin also held the orchestra’s artistic adviser post since 2016, a year after maestro Chung Myung-whun left the SPO at the end of 2015 after 10 years.


“I hope to later return to make a contribution to Korean music,“ Chin said in the email she wrote to her colleagues and fans.

“It took almost 20 years to come back and work here in Korea since I left the country in 1985 to study abroad,” Chin said. ”So many people have supported my works and activities here,” she added. ”I felt sorry for not having had many opportunities to directly communicate with local music lovers,“ she said.

In the email, Chin also apologized to her students for not giving them prior notice, indicating that her decision was an abrupt one.

At SPO, Chin organized four Ars Nova concerts -- concerts dedicated exclusively to contemporary classical music -- a year.

She has received numerous awards as well. Last year, Chin Un-suk was awarded the 20th Wihuri Sibelius Prize, one of the world‘s most prestigious classical music prizes.

Chin also received the Music Composition Prize of the Prince Pierre Foundation for Gougalon in 2010 and the Arnold Schonberg Prize in 2005.

In 2004, she won the Grawemeyer, an award often regarded as the Nobel Prize of classical music.

Her work “Choros Chordon” or “Dance of Strings” was premiered by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Simon Rattle, at the Berlin Philharmonic hall in November last year.

Chin is expected to focus on her own musical activities after withdrawing from the SPO.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)