Eunghee Cho, artistic director/cello
Born in Davis, California, Korean-American cellist Eunghee Cho was awarded Second Prize and the special award for Outstanding Chinese New Piece Performance at the Alice & Eleonore Schoenfeld International String Competition (China). He has also earned top prizes in the Gustav Mahler Prize Cello Competition (Czech Republic), AEMC International Chamber Music Competition (Italy), Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition, USC Solo Bach Competition, the Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award, MTNA National Chamber Music String Competition, New England Conservatory’s Honors Ensemble Competition, and Sacramento Philharmonic League Concerto Competition.
A committed teacher, Eunghee currently serves on the cello and chamber music faculty of University of Houston’s Moores School of Music, where he also directs the Moores Cello Ensemble and CelloFest Houston. He has been invited to present masterclasses for Towson University, La Jolla Music Society, Walnut Hill School for the Arts, Artis Naples, Royal Conservatory of Music, and Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society, and he is the Artistic Director of Mellon Music Festival in Davis, CA as well as the Houston Chapter of Music for Food. Eunghee has also served on the summer teaching faculties of Texas Music Festival, Montecito International Music Festival, Heifetz International Music Institute, Texas Strings Festival, and Festival Internacional de Música Naolinco.
He has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras around the country including the Sacramento Philharmonic, Fox Valley Symphony, Cape Symphony, Atlantic Symphony, Symphony by the Sea, Davis Symphony, and Sacramento State Symphony Orchestras. He has held the Joyce & Donald Steele Chair as Principal Cello of the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra and has performed as Guest Principal Cello with Boston Festival Orchestra, Dallas Chamber Symphony, Cape Symphony, Unitas Ensemble, and Symphony by the Sea.
As an avid chamber musician, Eunghee has collaborated in performances with artists such as Midori Goto, Inon Barnatan, David Shifrin, Maeve Gilchrist, Elton John, Keith Murphy, Alec Benjamin, François Salque, and with members of the Borromeo String Quartet, St. Lawrence String Quartet, Calder String Quartet, Silk Road Ensemble, and Aaron Diehl Trio. He has also performed as a guest artist with A Far Cry, Da Camera Society, and the Chamber Music Society of Sacramento. Previous festival engagements include La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Taos School of Music, Keuka Lake Music Festival, Highlands Cashiers Chamber Music Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Festival International d’Echternach, and Rencontres Franco Américaines de Musique Chambre in Missillac, France.
As a passionate adventurer of contemporary music, he has collaborated directly with composers in performances of their works including with Frank Ticheli, José Elizondo, Andrew Norman, David Froom, Michael Gandolfi, and Gabriela Lena Frank. Eunghee’s own arrangements have been commissioned and premiered by Sphinx Organization, New England Conservatory’s Cello Choir, Holes in the Floor, Rasa String Quartet, Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, Mellon Music Festival, Moores Cello Ensemble, and Music for Food.
Eunghee performs Shosty 8 at MMF2018.
Eunghee graduated as a Steven & Kathryn Sample Renaissance Scholar from the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance and a Minor in Biology as a student of Andrew Shulman. He completed both Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees at New England Conservatory under the tutelage of distinguished pedagogues Laurence Lesser and Paul Katz. Eunghee has actively participated in classes at the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival and Académie Musicale de Villecroze in France and has worked closely with Ralph Kirshbaum, Kim Kashkashian, and members of the Guarneri, Emerson, Tokyo, Orion, Brentano, Borromeo, and Shanghai Quartets. His cello instruction began with Julie Hochman, Richard Andaya, and Andrew Luchansky. Away from the cello, Eunghee enjoys neighborhood pick-up soccer, everything about dogs, and dawdling in local coffee shops.