Seong-Jin Cho

Seong-Jin Cho (조성진; born May 28, 1994) 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 pianist from his country to do so.

Early life and education
Cho was born in Seoul, South Korea where he began playing the piano at the age of six, and gave his first public recital when he was eleven years old. He graduated from the Yewon School, a private middle school for art education, and attended Seoul Arts High School before moving to France in 2012. He was taught by Prof. Park Sook-ryeon and Prof. Shin Soo-jung in Korea and studied at the Conservatoire de Paris as a student of Michel Béroff.

Career
Cho has won numerous awards including First Prize at both the International Fryderyk Chopin Competition for Young Pianists (2008) and the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition (2009). He has also received Third Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow (2011) and the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv (2014). In 2015, Cho won First Prize in the XVII International Chopin Piano Competition.

As a soloist, Cho has performed with many major orchestras including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mariinsky Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. He also regularly collaborates with eminent conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Myung-Whun Chung, Gustavo Dudamel, Valery Gergiev, Vasily Petrenko, Mikhail Pletnev, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Yuri Temirkanov. In recent years, he has toured countries such as Japan, Germany, France, Russia, Poland, Israel, China and the USA.

An active recitalist, Cho performs 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, and the Salzburg Festival, inter alia.

In 2017, Cho gave his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Sir Simon Rattle, replacing Lang Lang during parts of the orchestra's Asia tour.

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