Seong-Jin Cho is a South Korean pianist. He rose to fame within South Korea and the international classical music world in 2015 after winning the XVII International Chopin Piano Competition, becoming the first South Korean pianist to do so.

With an overwhelming talent and innate musicality, Seong-Jin Cho is rapidly embarking on a world-class career and is considered one of the most distinctive artists of his generation.

Cho was brought to the world’s attention in 2015 when he won the coveted Gold Medal at the Chopin International Competition in Warsaw. This same competition launched the careers of world-class artists such as Martha Argerich, Maurizio Pollini, Garrick Ohlsson, and Krystian Zimerman.

In January of 2016, Cho signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. His debut recording was released in November of 2016 and featured Chopin’s First Piano Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra led by Gianandrea Noseda, coupled with the Four Ballades. A solo Debussy recording followed in November of 2017. This November, he will release a Mozart album featuring piano sonatas and the D-minor piano concerto with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

An active recitalist, he performs in many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls. In the 2018/19 season, he will play the main stages of Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal, Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall, Zurich’s Tonhalle-Maag, and Munich’s Prinzregententheater, plus at the Verbier Festival, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, and Rheingau Festival, among several other venues.

Cho collaborates with conductors at the highest level, such as Sir Simon Rattle, Valery Gergiev, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gianandrea Noseda, Antonio Pappano, Myung-Whun Chung, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Yuri Temirkanov, Krzysztof Urbanski, Marek Janowski, Vasily Petrenko, Jakub Hrusa, Leonard Slatkin, and Mikhail Pletnev.

During the next two seasons, he will play with the London Symphony Orchestra and Gianandrea Noseda, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Myung-Whun Chung, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra with Antonio Pappano, Hong Kong Philharmonic with Jaap van Zweden, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra with Manfred Honeck, Finnish Radio Orchestra and Hannu Lintu, Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Orchestra della Scala with Chung. He will tour with the European Union Youth Orchestra and Noseda to venues like Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Royal Albert Hall, Berlin Konzerthaus; with London Philharmonic Orchestra and Robin Ticciati in Germany; WDR Sinfonieorchester and Marek Janowski in Germany and Japan; and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Antonio Pappano in Asia. Born in 1994 in Seoul, Seong-Jin Cho started learning the piano at age 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 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow at the age of 17. In 2012, he moved to Paris to study with Michel Béroff at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique where he graduated in 2015. He is now based in Berlin.

You are here