Paul Won Jin Cho

Clarinet

Clarinetist Paul Won Jin Cho shares his devotion to music in every possible direction, passionately involved as a soloist, orchestral player, historical-instrumentalist, and conductor.

Born and raised in South Korea, Cho \ picked up the clarinet when he was 11 years old. Since then he has won awards at the the Donga Competition (South Korea), the Koussevitzky Young Artists Awards (New York), the Leni Fe Bland Awards (California), among others.

After studies at the Korean National University of Arts, Seoul National University, University of Southern California (with Yehuda Gilad) and Yale School of Music (with David Shifrin), Cho  completed his fellowship with The Academy, a joint program of Carnegie Hall, Juilliard School, and Weill Music Institute. During the fellowship, he worked with Pablo Heras-Casado, Krista Bennion Feeney, Sir Simon Rattle, Jessica Rivera, David Robertson, and Sleeping Giant, with whom he collaborated. He served throughout his fellowship teaching at P.S. K200 Benson School, Brooklyn.

Cho’s recent solo appearance includes with Yale Philharmonia, Cornell Champer Orchestra, and Sebastian Chamber Players in which he played a five-keyed classical clarinet and basset clarinet.

As an orchestra player, he has worked under the batons of Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Myung-Hun Chung, James Levine, Dae-Jin Kim, Kent Nagano, and Benjamin Zander including playing in the Tanglewood Music Center, Youth Orchestra of the Americas, and Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

Cho recently has been named resident conductor of Albano Ballet of America (Hartford, CT) where he has conducted the full version of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker for the past two years.