Seong-Jin Cho

Seong-Jin Cho 조성진
Seong-Jin Cho in 2024
Background information
Born	(1994-05-28) 28 May 1994 Seoul, Republic of Korea
Genres	Classical
Occupation	Musician
Instrument	Piano
Years active	2006–present
Labels	Deutsche Grammophon
Website	seongjin-cho.com
Korean name
Hangul	조성진
Hanja	趙成珍
Revised Romanization	Jo Seongjin
McCune–Reischauer	Cho Sŏngjin

Seong-Jin Cho (Korean: 조성진, born in Seoul on 28 May 1994)is a concert pianist who won multiple international prizes including the 2015 edition of International Chopin Piano Competition (first prize), the 2014 Arthur Rubinstein Piano Master Competition (third prize), 14th Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011 (third prize), 12th Hamamatsu Competition in 2009 (first prize, the youngest ever winner) and 6th Moscow International F. Chopin Competition for Young Pianists in 2008 (first prize from his very first participation in international competitions). Described as a “poet on the keyboard” by Sir Simon Rattle, Cho is renowned for his delicate touch, refined texturing of melodic lines, defined rhythm and groove, and sensible balance in bass and treble.

With his wide variety of repertoire ranging from Handel, Mozart, Beethoven through Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt to Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and Shostakovich, Cho performs regularly at the world’s greatest concert venues such as Carnegie Hall, Berliner Philharmonie, Musikverein and Barbican Hall. He collaborates with leading orchestras including Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Orchestre de Paris, Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, London Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia, Chicago Symphony and the Cleveland just to name a few. He is invited to major classical music festivals such as Salzburg, Edinburg, Lucerne, Praha Spring, BBC Proms and Tanglewood.

For his recordings, Seong-Jin Cho signed the contract with Deutsche Grammophon in 2016, and since then has released six studio albums including musics of Chopin (2016), Debussy (2017), Mozart (2018), Schubert / Berg / Liszt (2020), Chopin (2021) and Handel / Brahms (2023).

Cho is Artist in Residence of Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in the 2024–25 season.

Education and early career

Seong-Jin Cho was born in Seoul, Republic of Korea, and resided in Bundang, a newly developed bedtown south of Seoul. Together with his cohort, he received a group lesson for piano for six months after which he started to take private lessons for piano and violin. He was six years old. When he started to participate in competitions for both instruments, he received prizes for violin but not from piano performance. He however liked piano better and continued his learning, which resulted in his first public recital at the age of eleven. He was benefited from elite education provided by Seoul Art Center aiming at identifying and supporting musical prodigies. As part of the program, Cho received private lessons from Prof. Sook-Ryeon Park at Sunchon National University from which he rapidly improved his piano playing skills, and then Prof. Soo-Jung Shin at Seoul National University from whom he learned the posture and crucial basics. As an influential person in the Korean classical music scene, Prof. Shin also provided connections needed for Cho to grow successfully.

He studied at the Yewon School, a private middle school for art education, during which he performed Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 and Ravel Piano Concerto in G with Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. This rare opportunity was given by Myung-whun Chung, then the musical director and chief conductor of the orchestra after a brief encounter during the prize giving ceremony they both attended. Cho briefly played the piano in front of Chung who then invited him as a soloist. Cho and Chung have since performed together in and outside Korea many times until now.

While studying at Yewon School, Cho won First Prize at both the International Fryderyk Chopin Competition for Young Pianists (2008) and the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition (2009). He attended Seoul Arts High School for two years during which he participated in the 14th Tchaikovsky Competition and won the third prize.

Attracted by numerous cultural offerings and opportunities of enjoying the concerts of his favourite pianists such as Radu Lupu, Grigory Sokolov and Murray Perahia, Cho moved to Paris and studied at Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (The Conservatoire de Paris) with Michel Béroff. One of the teaching assistants was Bertrand Chamayou for whom Cho mentioned his performance inspired him to practice more.

While studying at the Conservatoire de Paris, Cho participated in the 2014 Arthur Rubinstein Piano Master Competition and won third prize, and in 2015, he won first prize in the International Chopin Piano Competition.

Career

As a soloist, Cho has performed with many major orchestras including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra. He has collaborated with eminent conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Sir 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 Neget-Seguin and Andris Nelsons. He regularly tours around the world and performs with orchestras in Europe, North America and Asia.

Cho is an active recitalist and frequently achieves a sold-out concert in the world's most prestigious concert halls, including the Stern Auditorium of Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Los Angeles's Walt Disney Concert Hall, Prinzregententheater München, Wiener Konzerthaus, Musikverein, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Wigmore Hall in London, and the Berliner Philharmonie. He has also been invited to numerous music festivals such as the Verbier Festival, Menuhin Festival Gstaad, the Rheingau Musik Festival, BBC Proms, Tanglewood Festival, Salzburg Festival, Edinburg Festival and Lucerne Festival.

In 2017, Cho gave his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle, replacing Lang Lang during parts of the orchestra's Asia tour. He has been re-invited two other times since then. Cho is 2024–25 Artist in Residence of Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra performing Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1, Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 and some chamber music with members of the orchestra.

Seong-Jin Cho gave the world premier of Allegro in D, a newly found Mozart work, in 2021.

In 2022, Cho debuted with the Vienna Philharmonic as a replacement to Denis Matsuev who would perform with Valery Gergiev at Carnegie Hall but was replaced with Yannick Neget-Seguin. Less than a 24-hour notice, Cho found a piano at the lobby of a Berlin hotel where he practiced Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 overnight next to the crowds before he flew from Berlin to New York City. He admitted he had nosebleeds after the successful performance.

Despite his busy performance schedules, he has never performed in Oceanian and South American countries yet.

Personal Life

From his previous interview, Seong-Jin Cho mentioned he is an only child of engineer father and homemaker mother who loves classical music but has no professional musical background. They never forced Cho to develop his musical career but instead they let him decide what he wanted to do while doing their best to find opportunities such as the educational program offered by Seoul Art Center.

He also mentioned, after the Chopin Competition, he met Krystian Zimerman in Tokyo who toured him around the city. Zimerman has provided career advices 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, and when they met in Paris during a dinner party, he showed his phone with Lupu’s picture as a background image. 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 as it was mentioned in the interview. He was attracted by many beautiful parks in the city such as Tiergartan, Monbijoupark and Mauerpark. As Berliner, he enjoys taking a walk in the park with friends or by himself. This is mediation he needs to clear his thoughts and heal his minds. His hobby is finding new hobbies and he enjoys eating local foods and wines.

Cho considers music not as a job but what he likes, and enjoys performing more than 100 times a year 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 rarely listens to piano music recordings but orchestral and chamber music recordings. He has been a big fan of Mahler Symphonies since 7th grader.

Discography

After winning the Chopin Competition, Seong-Jin Cho signed the recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon and has released six studio albums, one live recording, one song album with Goerne and several digital singles.

• Winner of the 17th International Chopin Piano Competition Warsaw 2015, Seong-Jin Cho, Deutsche Grammophon, 6 November 2015
• Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 & Ballades, Seong-Jin Cho with London Symphony Orchestra & Gianandrea Noseda, Deutsche Grammophon, 25 November 2016
• Debussy: Images / Children's Corner / Suite Bergamasque, Seong-Jin Cho, Deutsche Grammophon, 17 November 2017
• Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20, K. 466; Piano Sonatas, K. 281 and 332, Seong-Jin Cho with Chamber Orchestra Of Europe & Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Deutsche Grammophon, 16 November 2018
• Mozart: Rondo in A Minor, K. 511, Deutsche Grammophon, 23 April 2020
• The Wanderer Schubert Berg Liszt, Seong-Jin Cho, Deutsche Grammophon, 8 May 2020
• Im Abendrot (at Sunset) – Songs by Wagner, Pfitzner, Strauss, Matthias Goerne and Seong-Jin Cho, Deutsche Grammophon, 16 April 2021
• Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2 · Scherzi, Seong-Jin Cho with London Symphony Orchestra & Gianandrea Noseda, Deutsche Grammophon, 27 August 2021
• The Handel Project: Handel-Suites & Brahms-Variations, Seong-Jin Cho, 23 February 2023

He has recently recorded Ravel’s complete solo piano works, which will be released in Jan 2025. He will offer all Ravel recital program in the upcoming season at Carnegie Hall, the Berliner Philharmonie, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Barbican Center London and many more. His live recordings of Ravel's two piano concertos performed with Boston Symphony Orchestra under the conductorship of Andris Nelsons will also released together.

Awards

• 2008: International Fryderyk Chopin Competition for Young Pianists – First Prize
• 2009: Hamamatsu International Piano Competition – First Prize
• 2011: International Tchaikovsky Competition (piano) – Third Prize
• 2014: Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition – Third Prize
• 2015: XVII International Chopin Piano Competition – First Prize
• 2023: Samsung Ho-Am Prize in the Arts

External links

• Official website
• Deutsche Grammophon