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Seong-Jin Cho

piano

About this Artist

With an overwhelming talent and innate musicality, Seong-Jin Cho has made his mark as one of the consummate talents of his generation and most distinctive artists on the current music scene. His thoughtful and poetic, assertive and tender, virtuosic and colorful playing can combine panache with purity and is driven by an impressive natural sense of balance.

Seong-Jin Cho was brought to the world’s attention in 2015 when he won First Prize at the Chopin International Competition in Warsaw. In January 2016, he signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. The first recording, released in November 2016, featured Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the London Symphony Orchestra and Gianandrea Noseda, coupled with the four Ballades.  A solo Debussy recital was released in November 2017, followed in 2018 by a Mozart album featuring the Sonatas K. 281 and K. 332 and the Piano Concerto No. 20, with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. All albums won impressive critical acclaim worldwide. Cho’s latest album on the Yellow Label, titled The Wanderer and released in May 2020, featured Schubert’s “Wanderer” Fantasy, Berg’s Piano Sonata Op. 1, and Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor.  

Highlights of Cho’s 2021/22 season include performances with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Alain Altinoglu, New York Philharmonic and Jaap van Zweden, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, as well as return invitations to the Philadelphia Orchestra with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Hong Kong Philharmonic with Jaap van Zweden. His 2020/21 season included a return to the Berliner Philharmoniker with Andris Nelsons and debuts with the Münchner Philharmoniker and Valery Gergiev. Recent orchestral highlights include performances with Boston Symphony Orchestra with Hannu Lintu, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra with Manfred Honeck, and Mahler Chamber Orchestra with Jakub Hrůša.  

An active recitalist very much in demand, Seong-Jin Cho performs in many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, including the main stage of Carnegie Hall as part of the Keyboard Virtuoso series, Concertgebouw Amsterdam in the Master Pianists series, Berliner Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal (the orchestra’s concert series), Konzerthaus Vienna, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Prinzregententheater in Munich, Liederhalle in Stuttgart, Festival International de piano de la Roque d’Anthéron, Verbier Festival, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, and Rheingau Musik Festival. During the coming season, he gives debut solo recitals at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, Festspielhaus in Bregenz, Victoria Hall in Geneva, and Wigmore Hall in London.

Born in 1994 in Seoul, Seong-Jin Cho started learning the piano at the age of six and gave his first public recital at 11. In 2009, he became the youngest-ever winner of Japan’s Hamamatsu International Piano Competition. In 2011, he won Third Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow at the age of 17. From 2012 to 2015, he studied with Michel Béroff at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris, and he is now based in Berlin.

Management for Seong-Jin Cho: Primo Artists, New York, NY, primoartists.com