![]() It was much cheaper than Paris, and the classical scene is so important here. “I had two friends here, and I liked the lifestyle here. “I visited for the first time in 2016,” he said of the German capital. He has remained in Europe since and now resides in Berlin. When he was 18 years old, the pianist moved to France for further studies at the Paris Conservatoire for five years, where he was still a student when won the Chopin Competition. He gave his first public recital when he was 11 and became the youngest-ever winner of Japan’s Hamamatsu International Piano Competition four years later. “I like playing the piano and listening to music, and I kind of became serious,” he said. At the time, he said, learning an instrument was “normal and fashionable,” nothing unusual, but what was different was his facility for piano and his dedication to it. Like many other children in his native South Korea, where classical music has become popular in recent decades, Cho began taking piano lessons when he was 6. Friday’s concert offered about as thrilling a display of sheer powerhouse keyboard bravura as one is ever likely to encounter.” “His arsenal is complete and unassailable, the pianist vaulting through some of the most technically demanding repertoire with guns blazing and nary a slip. Johnson in the Chicago Classical Review of that concert. “Cho clearly possesses a world-class technique, polished to a high sheen,” wrote Lawrence A. Cho made his Chicago recital debut in 2018 as part of the University of Chicago Presents series. ![]() 8 and 10, 2024, for his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, joining guest conductor Gemma New in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. “Since 2017, my career has gone much better and smoother, especially in Germany.”Ĭho will make his first appearance May 21 on the Symphony Center Presents Piano Series, and he is set to return Feb. ![]() In January 2016, he signed an exclusive contract with the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label, and a year later, he debuted with the conductor Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic as a substitute for Lang Lang on an Asian tour. His victory at the Chopin competition solidified his place on the international classical scene, and it set off a series of events that boosted his career even more. “I like traveling, and I like performing for audiences around the world, so ever since then, I wanted to build my career in Europe and also in America.” “I got to know what the life of pianist looked like,” he said. Perhaps even more important, he had already performed 50 concerts alone in 2010 when he was 16 as part of the prizes from a Japanese competition. By the time that Seong-Jin Cho appeared at the 2015 Chopin International Competition in Warsaw, the Korean-born pianist had won awards in two previous contests, so he knew what to expect. Experience counts in just about everything, and that includes piano competitions.
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