Pianist James Cho made his first national appearance as the winner of Young Artist Guild at age 18. He earned his BM from Oberlin Conservatory of Music and MM from Peabody Conservatory of Music. After moving to Houston in 2000, he completed his DMA program from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. His teachers have included Brian Connelly, Robert McDonald, Robert Shannon, Bruce Sutherland, and has frequently performed in masterclasses of Leon Fleisher, Anton Kuerti, John Perry, Menahem Pressler, and Rosalyn Tureck.
In the competition scene, Dr. Cho has been a successful at the Joanna Hodges, MTNA Collegiate Nationals, New Orleans, and captured first prizes at the Kingsville, Isabel Scionti, and Los Angeles Liszt International piano competitions. He has worked with conductors Louis Lane, Ronald Ochoa, Yuli Turovsky, and Timothy Weiss performing a wide range of repertoire from William Byrd to Oliver Knussen and frequently performs at various summer festivals in the United States, Canada, Korea, Spain, France, and Germany. Dr. Cho is an adjudicator for many competitions including TMEA, TMTA, MTNA, UIL and presents masterclasses at music festivals in Texas. His students have won scholarships for graduate programs at Rice University, Baylor University, Aspen Music Festival, Montecito Music Festival, and top prizes at the TMTA and MTNA Young Artist Competitions, and MasterWorks Festival Concerto Competition. In addition to teaching a private studio in Katy, he has previously taught at Sam Houston State University’s School of Music in Huntsville for 8 years and is now the Director of Orchestras at Alief Middle School. |