EUNGHEE CHO

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 (USA), among other competitions and 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, UC 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 orchestras around the country including Mercury Chamber Orchestra, Boston Festival Orchestra, Dallas Chamber Symphony, and Cape Symphony.

Eunghee currently serves on the cello and chamber music faculty of the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music, where he also directs the Moores Cello Ensemble, CelloFest Houston, and Texas Music Festival’s Chamber Music Program. He has been invited to present masterclasses for Boston Conservatory, Towson University, La Jolla Music Society, Walnut Hill School for the Arts, University of Southern Mississippi, 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. Eunghee has also served on the summer teaching faculties of Texas Music Festival, International Cello Institute, Montecito International Music Festival, Heifetz International Music Institute, Texas Strings Festival, and Festival Internacional de Música Naolinco.

His chamber music collaborations include performances with artists such as Midori Goto, Inon Barnatan, David Shifrin, Paul Neubauer, Maeve Gilchrist, Elton John, Keith Murphy, Alec
Benjamin, François Salque, and with members of the Cleveland Quartet, Borromeo String Quartet, St. Lawrence String Quartet, Calder String Quartet, Silk Road Ensemble, A Far Cry, Da Camera Society, and Aaron Diehl Trio. He was the founding cellist of the Rasa String Quartet and has collaborated directly with composers in world and national premieres of their works
including with José Elizondo, Andrew Norman, Michael Gandolfi, Jeremy Crosmer, and Julia Adolphe. 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.

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 Midori Goto. His cello instruction began with Julie Hochman, Richard Andaya, and Andrew Luchansky.

Other Achievements at the University of Houston: 

• Moores Cello Ensemble, director
• CelloFest Houston, artistic director
• Texas Music Festival, director of chamber music