It’s an almost 7,000-mile journey across the Pacific Ocean and the United States to get from Seoul to State College. But pianist Seong-Jin Cho, who makes his Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State premiere October 28, has taken an even longer route — by way of Poland — to get to his first United States tour this autumn.
Cho, who won the 17th Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw in 2015, is scheduled to perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra at Eisenhower Auditorium.
“There are already moments in Cho’s performances that have a sense of something really special,” observes a critic for Britain’s The Guardian.
The 22-year-old South Korea native, who has lived in Paris since 2012, recently signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon.
“Cho has an enviable ability to make every note sound distinct and clear, shaping and balancing each phrase perfectly,” writes a reviewer for the classical music Web site Bachtrack.
The orchestra program at Eisenhower also includes Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Polish Melodies Op. 47, No. 2, and Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68.
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, which last performed at Penn State in 2008, returns for its fourth US tour — this time under the baton of music and artistic director Jacek Kaspszyk.
The orchestra, “a highlight of the year. … one of the best-kept secrets in the business” (Los Angeles Times), gave its first concert in 1901 and has performed on five continents.
Kaspszyk, a graduate of Warsaw Academy of Music, has been at the helm of the orchestra since 2013. In addition to his leadership of Warsaw Philharmonic, he has guest conducted the Berlin, New York, London, Royal, and Prague philharmonics plus other prestigious orchestras around the world.
Cho began studying the piano when he was 6. In 2008, at age 14, he earned first prize in the sixth Moscow International Frederick Chopin Competition. The following year, he took first prize at the seventh Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan. He is the youngest winner in the history of the Japanese event.
Despite his youth, the pianist has performed with many of the planet’s most significant orchestras, including Royal Concertgebouw, Philharmonia, Mariinsky, Munich Philharmonic, Berlin Radio Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, Budapest Festival, Danish National Symphony, Russian National, NHK Symphony, and Radio France Philharmonic.
He’s worked with the acclaimed conductors Myung-Whun Chung, Lorin Maazel, Marek Janowski, Mikhail Pletnev, Valery Gergiev, and Vladimir Ashkenazy.
He is scheduled to make his Carnegie Hall debut as a soloist in February.
Dotty and Paul Rigby sponsor the Penn State concert. WPSU is the media sponsor. For information or tickets, visit cpa.psu.edu or phone (814) 863-0255.
