|
Seong-Jin Cho
Seong-Jin Cho (Korean: 조성진; born May 28, 1994)[1] is a concert pianist. He was the winner of the 2015 International Chopin Piano Competition, the first from South Korea.[2] Since then, he has regularly performed as a soloist with the world's foremost orchestras. Cho signed with Deutsche Grammophon in 2016, under which he has released seven studio albums. He is the Artist in Residence of the Berlin Philharmonic for the 2024–25 season.[3] Early life and educationCho was born in Seoul, South Korea, the only child of non-musical parents; his father was an engineer.[4] At six years old, he began studying both the piano and the violin. Though he appeared to have more natural facility on the latter, he developed a stronger liking for the piano, and gave his first public piano recital at age eleven. After being identified through a musical prodigy development program at the Seoul Arts Center, he began studying under Sook-Ryeon Park at Sunchon National University and Soo-Jung Shin at Seoul National University. He attended the Yewon School, a private middle school for art education, during which he won First Prize at both the Moscow International Fryderyk Chopin Competition for Young Pianists (2008)[2] and the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition (2009). Cho then attended Seoul Arts High School for two years, during which he placed third at the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition and began performing regularly with Myung-whun Chung and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Cho moved to Paris in 2012 to study at the Conservatoire de Paris with Michel Béroff.[5] While there, Cho placed third at the 2014 Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition and first prize at the 2015 International Chopin Piano Competition. CareerSeong-Jin Cho constantly tours around the world to work with orchestras and give piano recitals in Europe, North America and Asia. He performs more than 100 times a year and has a busy schedule pre-booked at least three years ahead.[6] As a soloist, Cho frequently works with prestigious European orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra. He also performs regularly with prestigious North American orchestras such as New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia, and Cleveland, He has collaborated with eminent conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Simon Rattle, Kirill Petrenko, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Myung-Whun Chung, Gustavo Dudamel, Valery Gergiev, Vasily Petrenko, Mikhail Pletnev, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Yuri Temirkanov, Gianandrea Noseda, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Andris Nelsons. Cho is an active recitalist and frequently sells out concerts in the world's most prestigious concert halls, including the Stern Auditorium of Carnegie Hall, Berliner Philharmonie, Musikverein, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Prinzregententheater München, Wiener Konzerthaus, Wigmore Hall in London and Suntory Hall Tokyo, just to name a few. He has also been invited to numerous music festivals such as the Verbier Festival, Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Rheingau Musik Festival, BBC Proms, Tanglewood Festival, Salzburg Festival, Edinburg Festival and Lucerne Festival. In 2017, Cho made his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Simon Rattle to perform the Ravel Piano Concerto in G.[7] He has been re-invited two other times since then. In 2021, Cho gave the world premiere of Allegro in D, a newly found Mozart work.[8] In 2022, Cho debuted with the Vienna Philharmonic, as a replacement for Denis Matsuev, with Yannick Neget-Seguin.[9] Cho performed the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 and has been invited to perform with the orchestra on the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 in October 2024. Cho is 2024–25 Artist in Residence of Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra[10] performing the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1, Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 and some chamber music with members of the orchestra. Discography Seong-Jin Cho's first album was his Chopin Piano Competition-winning performance released as a live recording immediately after the conclusion of the competition:
In 2016, Cho signed a recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon and has released six studio albums.[11]
In addition, Cho recorded Mozart's newly found work, collaborated with Matthias Goerne for a song album and has released four digital singles:
ReviewsOn his BBC Proms performance of Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4, The Guardian reviewed:[12]
Bachtrack reviewer Chris Garlick commented on Cho's Schumann Symphonic Etudes:[13]
Cho has been described as a "poet on the keyboard" by Sir Simon Rattle.[14] Awards
Personal lifeAfter the Chopin Competition, he met Krystian Zimerman in Tokyo who toured him around the city.[4] Zimerman has provided career advice to Cho since then. Cho's first classical album that he purchased as a child was Zimerman's Chopin Four Ballades. Cho idolised Radu Lupu, as he revealed in the interview,[4] when they met in Paris during a dinner party, they became close and Cho was invited to Lupu's house in Lausanne several times. Cho moved to Berlin in 2018 after briefly visiting the city for business occasion. He was attracted by the city's cosmopolitan culture and many beautiful parks in the city. Cho considers music not as a job but what he likes, and enjoys performing constantly[6] while he tries to expand his repertoire by adding at least two new piano concertos and a one-year recital program worth of solo piano pieces each year. He has been a big fan of Mahler Symphonies since he was in the 7th grade. References
External links
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
.png)
