Born in Davis, California, American cellist Eunghee Cho was recently award Second Prize and the special award for Outstanding Chinese New Piece Performance at the Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld International String Competition. He recently graduated magna cum laude and as a Steven & Kathryn Sample Renaissance Scholar from the Flora L. Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance and a Minor in Natural Sciences.
He has appeared as soloist with the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra and on numerous occasions with the Sacramento State University Symphony. Performance venues include the Robert & Margrit Mondavi Center in Davis, San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall, the Philharmonie in Berlin, Munich’s Gasteig, and West Hollywood’s Troubadour. Eunghee has actively participated in classes at the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival and Academie Musicale de Villecroze. He has worked closely with distinguished professors such as Steven Doane, Colin Carr, Norman Fischer, Jean-Guihen Queyras, and members of the Guarneri, Emerson, Tokyo, Orion, and Alexander quartets in master classes.
He has held principal chairs in the New England Conservatory Chamber Orchestra, Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, CMEA All-State Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, and BUTI Young Artists Orchestra. He has worked under the baton of such luminaries as Michael Tilson Thomas, Sir Simon Rattle, James Conlon, Gerard Schwarz, Carl St. Clair and Jung-Ho Pak. He earned First Prize in the University of Southern California Solo Bach Competition, the Sacramento Philharmonic League JAMMIES Competition, and was awarded top prize in the High School Classical Soloist category by Downbeat Student Music Awards. He has received scholarship support from the Sacramento Philharmonic Scholarship League Society and the USC Trojans Scholar Society.
As an avid chamber musician, Mr. Cho. has performed with artists such as Midori Goto, François Salque, Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, William Barbini, and Kineko Okumura. He has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Sacramento and, as a Young-Artist-in-Residence with the Da Camera Society. Previous festival engagements include the Music@Menlo Chamber Music Festival and Institute, Rheingau Musik Festival, Festival International d’Echternach, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Bowdoin International Music Festival, and Rencontres Franco Americaines de Musique Chambre in Missillac, France.
He began studying the piano at the age of five and later began his cello studies with Julie Hochman at the age of eight. He is currently pursuing a Master’s degree at the New England Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of distinguished cellist Paul Katz. His previous instructors include Andrew Shulman, Andrew Luchansky, and Richard Andaya. Outside of music, Eunghee can be found engaging in such activities as pick-up soccer or dawdling in a local coffee shop.