Seong-jin Cho
PIANO
“Cho appears to have the musical potential to take his place alongside the greats of the past.”
Photo credit: Christoph Köstlin
Seong-Jin Cho has established himself worldwide as one of the leading pianists of his generation and most distinctive artists on the current music scene. With an innate musicality and consummate artistry, his thoughtful and poetic, virtuosic, and colourful playing can combine panache with purity and is driven by an impressive natural sense of balance. He is celebrated unanimously across the globe for his expressive magic and illuminative insights.
Seong-Jin Cho was brought to the world’s attention in 2015 when he won First Prize at the Chopin International Competition in Warsaw, and his career has rapidly ascended since. In early 2016, he signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon and, in 2023, Cho was awarded the prestigious Samsung Ho-Am Prize in the Arts in recognition of his exceptional contributions to the world of classical music. An artist high in demand, Cho works with the world's most prestigious orchestras including Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra, Concertgebouworkest, and Boston Symphony Orchestra. Conductors he regularly collaborates with include Myung-Whun Chung, Gustavo Dudamel, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Gianandrea Noseda, Sir Antonio Pappano, Sir Simon Rattle, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Lahav Shani.
In the 2024/25 season Seong-Jin Cho takes up the mantle of Artist in Residence with the Berliner Philharmoniker, a position which sees Cho work with the orchestra on multiple projects across the season including concerto performances, chamber music collaborations, on tour to the Osterfestspiele Baden-Baden, and in recital. Elsewhere, he notably returns to London’s BBC Proms, to the Philadelphia Orchestra to open their season with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, to New York Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Santtu-Matias Rouvali, and to The Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst. Cho embarks on several international tours, including his notable return to Wiener Philharmoniker with Andris Nelsons in Korea and to Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks with Sir Simon Rattle in Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, following a performance of Brahms Piano Concerto. No. 2 in Munich.
Highly sought after in recital, Seong-Jin Cho appears in the world’s most prestigious concert halls including the main stage of the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Musikverein Wien, Alte Oper Frankfurt, KKL Luzern, Sala Santa Cecilia, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Rudolfinum, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Festival International de Piano de la Roque d'Anthéron, and Verbier Festival. During the coming season he will present the complete solo piano music of Maurice Ravel at venues including the Wiener Konzerthaus, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Barbican Centre London, Celebrity Series at Boston Symphony Hall, Walt Disney Hall Los Angeles, and Carnegie Hall.
Seong-Jin Cho's latest recording is his solo album entitled ‘The Handel Project’, released in early 2023. In 2021, he released Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Scherzi with the London Symphony Orchestra and Gianandrea Noseda for Deutsche Grammophon. He had previously recorded his first album with the same orchestra and conductor featuring Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 as well as the Four Ballades. His solo album titled ‘The Wanderer’ was released in 2020 and features Schubert’s ‘Wanderer Fantasy’, Berg’s Piano Sonata op. 1, and Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor. A solo Debussy recital was also released in 2017, followed by a Mozart album with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Yannick Nézet-Séguin in 2018. All albums have been released on the Yellow Label and have garnered impressive critical acclaim worldwide.
Born in 1994 in Seoul, Seong-Jin Cho started learning the piano at the age of six and gave his first public recital aged 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 2012-2015 he studied with Michel Béroff at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. Seong-Jin Cho is now based in Berlin.
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Charlotte Lee
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“Cho has been elevated straight to the big time.”
“Cho paints with transparency and exuberance … his playing is riveting as ever.”
“He is on the threshold of a major career.”
“Cho is a master. He displayed an impressive variety of tonal colors and remarkable technique, dispatched with jaw-dropping panache. He had something to say and communicated it well.”
“Cho appears to have the musical potential to take his place alongside the greats of the past. He has earned praise, not only for his bulletproof technique, but also for his artistic voice: his sense of drama, his natural nobility and his youthfully searching interpretations.”
“In its elegant command of narrative structures, Cho’s recording of the Chopin Ballades bears a resemblance to Zimerman’s, but Cho’s readings are also enlivened by a freshness of detail.”
“Cho plays not only with panache but with depth and sensitivity. Many young competition phenoms excel at the whiz-bang parts; Cho shone in the dreamy second movement, spinning it out into a long building fantasy that one didn’t want to end.”
“Cho is clearly a thoughtful and assertive artist.”
“What Cho boasts, as old-fashioned as this may sound, is a poetic sensibility that evokes the fantastical sound world of the early Romantics. He deployed his technique, panache and his elusive expressive manner to create a new sound world again and again.”
“Don’t let the competition medal fool you. This guy’s an artist.”
“Everything is poetic, introspective, graceful.”
“Cho is among the consummate artists performing today, destined to be among the pantheon of legends.”
“Cho may be among the greats.”
“There are already moments in Cho’s performances that have a sense of something really special. In this recital, the first of them came at the end of the Chopin F Minor Fantasy, when the music seemed to be suspended in mid-air on a gossamer thread of sound; the Four Mazurkas, Op. 33 too seemed to inhabit a world that Cho had imagined just for them.”
“Cho has an enviable ability to make every note sound distinct and clear, shaping and balancing each phrase perfectly… He superbly demonstrated his understanding of Chopin’s stated intent: ‘calm and melancholy, giving the impression of a thousand happy memories. It’s a kind of moonlight reverie on a beautiful spring evening.”
“His sound was lucid and shimmering …”