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"Such a sensitive player...I would buy a ticket for her concert."

Menahem Pressler

Beaux Arts Trio / Indiana University

"Your playing was so musical, sensitive, and full of color.

...

You gave yourself so deeply to the music that I was completely engaged by your performance and very moved by it.

...

Your technique went beyond the typical pianistic virtuosity, displaying incredible tonal control, right down to the softest sounds."

Karin Edwards

Wheaton College

Dr. Hyejin Cho is a highly active performer with recent concerts across the U.S.A., Germany, Italy, Austria, England, Japan, and Korea. Her enthusiasm for Robert Schumann led her to develop the concert series of piano works by Robert Schumann, a project that she has established in seven different states in the U.S. with the support by the Missouri Arts Council, Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship, University of Michigan Research Grant, and OMF Music Resources. Her Schumann performances and interviews have been broadcast, including live streaming on the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series on WFMT 98.7FM, Parma Recordings Live Stage and Wheaton College Artist Series among others. Other than the Schumann project, she is developing a project on female composers with a mission to create an equal platform for female composers. Currently, she is researching works by European composers such as Cécile Chaminade, Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, and Korean composers, which she has played in public concerts from the 2021-22 season. In addition, Cho has been featured as a concerto soloist with orchestras, the most recent ones were with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra (under the baton of Arie Lipsky) playing Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4, and with the Northern Illinois Chamber Orchestra (under the baton of Jun-Hee Han) playing the Mozart Piano Concertos K. 451 and K. 488 in five cities in northern Illinois.

 

Along with her solo career, Cho is very passionate about chamber music, having had extensive collaborative performance experiences. She is a founding member of the American Prize winning Koinonia Piano Trio, a performing and teaching ensemble that has performed in New York, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Alaska and 5 cities in Europe as a part of a tour in Austria, Germany and Italy. As a vibrant and service-minded ensemble, the trio has established several performance residencies and given outreach concerts and workshops. The trio received many grants such as the Binkow grant of $10,000 for European tour. In addition, she has collaborated with internationally renowned artists, including Gilles Apap, Danielle Belen, Aaron Berofsky, Maximilian Dimoff, Arianna Dotto, Nathan Giem, David Halen, Jesse Krebs, Chee-Yun Kim, Jonathan Ruck, Yizhak Schotten, and members of the Cleveland Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, Lansing Symphony Orchestra and Calidore String Quartet among others. Her passion for collaboration also brought her to numerous music festivals, including the Innsbrook Institute, Maui Classical Music Festival, Brightmusic Summer Festival, Anchorage Chamber Music Festival and Ann Arbor Chember Fest.

 

In addition to performing, Cho is an enthusiastic educator teaching piano, collaborative piano and chamber music at institutions and music festivals. She currently serves on the piano faculty as Visiting Assistant Professor at Oklahoma State University. Previously, she held positions at Wheaton College, Truman State University, University of Michigan, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, Center Stage Strings, Anchorage Chamber Music Festivals, and Innsbrook Institute. Furthermore, she has worked closely with collegiate level students by giving lectures, masterclasses and performances at institutions including Oberlin Conservatory of Music, University of Utah, University of Missouri, University of Oklahoma, University of South Alabama, Northern Illinois University, Truman State University, University of Central Oklahoma and Oklahoma Baptist University. In addition, she serves on the board for the Oklahoma Music Teachers Association as Collegiate Chapter Chair. She created and organized the OMTA collegiate poster session which was successfully presented at the OMTA State Conference 2023.  Furthermore, she is an executive director of the OMF Music Resources (http://omfmusicresources.com) established in 2014 by Kenneth Drake and Jun-Hee Han to work with collegiate level students in the country by offering shared visits to schools of music and music departments by giving lectures, masterclasses and performances.

An active member and presenter of Music Teachers National Association and the College Music Society, Cho's research and projects have been presented at national and regional conferences; her lecture recital titled "French female pianist-composer Cecile Chaminade's strategies to succeed in American musical culture between 1890-1920, reflected in programmatic character pieces for solo piano" and the paper presentation "What makes Robert Schumann Schumann: Schumann's creation of fantasy borrowed from literature, especially E. T. A. Hoffman's novel The Life and Opinions of Tomcat Murr" were presented at CMS South Regional Conference. And she performed at the CMS National Conference in the session titled "Milhaud's Musical Response to the 1918 Pandemic."

An avid supporter of communities, she strives to bring high-quality music education and performance to communities where they do not enjoy the advantage of it. As a member of Stateline Music Foundation, Cho plays in the Northern Illinois area regularly. In addition, she taught piano for the underrepresented communities and children with special needs.

 

Originally from Seoul, Korea, Cho graduated with Summa Cum Laude and as Valedictorian from Ewha Women’s University with a Bachelor of Music in Piano. After graduation, she came to the United States, studying with Menahem Pressler at Indiana University and earning a Master of Music and an Artist Diploma in Piano. Cho completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance at the University of Michigan under Christopher Harding with a concurrent Master’s degree in Chamber Music under Amy I-Lin Cheng, Christopher Harding, Martin Katz and David Halen. Additional studies include private piano study with Wonmi Kim in Italy, fortepiano with Eunji Lee at Indiana University, and harpsichord with Dawn Kalis at Indiana University.​

Cho currently resides in Stillwater, OK with her conductor/pianist husband, Dr. Jun-Hee Han.

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