The chief executive of Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Emma Dunch, has departed the premier arts company, claiming she was subject to a “politically architected ‘hit job’ of the highest order”.

Her departure, announced by the SSO’s chair Geoff Wilson, comes four years after she was first appointed, and two years before her contract was due to end.

In an explosive personal exit statement issued Friday, Dunch said she would be taking her harassment case to government anti-corruption channels, potentially the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Tensions have been simmering around the NSW government’s commitment to compensate the SSO for the two years it would be without a home while the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall was refurbished.

“We all know that NSW politics is a blood sport, but I have been targeted with a politically architected ‘hit job’ of the highest order across the past several years,” she said.

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Dunch said she had maintained “a reluctant professional silence while experiencing ongoing vilification and harassment behind the scenes”.

“It has been an ugly business and I will be taking appropriate action via the government corruption channels available to me.”

“This damaging behaviour by government workers must be called out and discredited. It is abhorrent and destructive. Our cultural institutions and their hardworking leaders must demand better from the people employed by our elected politicians.”