Unsuk Chin to lead Tongyeong International Music Festival through 2029

Five springs proved her worth — and earned her three more. Composer Unsuk Chin, 65, will lead the Tongyeong International Music Festival through 2029.

The Tongyeong International Music Foundation announced Monday that it has renewed Chin's contract as artistic director, extending her term by three years through December 2029. Chin, who took the post in 2022 on a five-year term, will now serve a total of eight years.

"I am honored to continue as artistic director of the Tongyeong International Music Festival, which represents Korea on the world stage," Chin said. "Although I hold artistic director and composer-in-residence roles at other institutions around the world, the Tongyeong International Music Festival holds a special place for me."

The festival has achieved remarkable growth since Chin took the helm. The 2026 edition, held from March 27 to April 5 under the theme "Face the Depth," drew more than 15,500 attendees across 26 official performances — about 5 percent more than last year — with a seat occupancy rate of 82 percent. According to the foundation, audience numbers have grown every year since Chin's appointment. The opening concert and a recital by pianist Cho Seong-jin sold out the moment tickets went on sale.

Chin has also broadened the festival's artistic scope. British composer Sir George Benjamin served as composer-in-residence, while violinist Augustin Hadelich and countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński appeared as artists-in-residence. The program ranged from a Baroque concert by early-music ensemble Il Giardino Armonico to a performance of "Sugungga" by master pansori singer Wang Gi-seok and a jazz set by pianist Michael Wollny. The annual composer-in-residence slot — dedicated to an in-depth focus on a single composer — went to Hungarian composer Péter Eötvös in 2024 and Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen in 2025.

Chin has also championed the next generation of musicians. The TIMF Academy, launched in 2005 alongside Ensemble Modern to mark the 10th anniversary of Yun Isang's death, saw 85 composers apply in 2022, with 29 selected to receive instruction from Chin and Swiss composer Michael Jarrell.

The Tongyeong International Music Festival traces its roots to "Yun Isang Music Night" in 1999 and the Tongyeong Contemporary Music Festival, which launched in 2000, before relaunching as an international festival in 2002. Tongyeong became South Korea's first UNESCO Creative City of Music in 2015.

This year has been nothing short of a landmark for Chin. In March, she became the first Korean to receive the Frontiers of Knowledge Award in music and opera from Spain's BBVA Foundation, earning a prize of 400,000 euros ($449,000). The jury praised her mastery of sound, which she transforms into a play of illusion and metamorphosis. In June, she received the grand prize at the 14th Daewon Music Award, and in May she took the stage as the first Korean composer-in-residence at the Czech Republic's Prague Spring festival.

Born in Seoul in 1961, Chin moved to Germany in 1985 to study under György Ligeti and has lived in Berlin since 1988 — the same city where Yun Isang, who grew up in Tongyeong, spent the latter part of his life.