Trio Seoul

Formed in 2022, TRIO SEOUL’s founding members, violinist Jinjoo Cho, Cellist Brannon Cho, and Pianist Kyu Yeon Kim, are winners and laureates of more than 20 international competitions and awards combined. The ensemble was formed with a mission to combine forces between three members who all identify as the 21st-century musician, actively performing in the world’s greatest concert halls while presenting creative projects in collaboration with artists of various fields, including composers, choreographers, writers, and visual artists. The city of Seoul is a dynamic symbol of the ensemble’s cultural roots as well as artistic intensity.

JINJOO CHO, VIOLIN
1st Prize Winner of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, Concours musical international de Montréal, and Buenos Aires, Schoenfeld, Stulberg Competitions, Jinjoo has toured extensively on concert stages around the world since her solo debut with the Seoul Philharmonic at the age of 11. Today, she continues to perform with leading orchestras such as The Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Deutsche Radio Philharmonic, Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia de Madrid, and North Carolina, Phoenix, Charlotte Symphonies while collaborating with prominent conductors such as Kent Nagano, James Gaffigan, JoAnn Falletta, Michael Stern, Mathieu Herzog, Tito Munoz, Michael Francis, Moritz Gnann, Karina Canellakis, Shi-Yeon Sung, Pietari Inkinen, and Clemens Schuldt. In 2021, Jinjoo formed Trio Seoul with pianist Kyu Yeon Kim and cellist Brannon Cho.

Jinjoo’s solo and chamber music appearances have taken place in distinguished venues and festivals, including Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Herkulessaal (Munich), La Seine Musicale (Paris), Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), Banff Centre (Canada), Seoul Arts Center, Kumho Art Hall (Korea), Aspen Music Festival, Gilmore Festival, Music@Menlo, Perlman Music Program, La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest (USA), Aigues-Vives Music Festival (France), Kronberg Academy, and Schwetzingen Festspiele (Germany).

Jinjoo’s recordings La Capricieuse (2020, SONY Classical), The Indianapolis Commissions (2018, Azica), and Jinjoo Cho (2007, Analekta) have garnered critical acclaim worldwide and commercial success in her home country of Korea. In 2021, Saint-Saëns album with Ensemble Appassionato, conducted by her dear friend Mathieu Herzog, was released by Naïve Classical.

Jinjoo is currently the founding Artistic Director of ENCORE Chamber Music Institute (501(c)(3) non-profit) and an Assistant Professor of Violin at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University. She previously served as faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Oberlin Conservatory. Jinjoo’s dedication to nurturing the next generation of young musicians stems directly from the influence of her teachers, Paul Kantor and Jaime Laredo.

Most recently, Jinjoo was invited to serve as a jury member at major international competitions. She served on the Official Jury of the 2022 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, the preliminary screening committee of the 2018 and 2023 Concours musical international de Montréal, and is scheduled to serve on the jury panel of the 2024 Schoenfeld International String Competition.

KYU YEON KIM, PIANO
Kyu Yeon Kim is a laureate of the 2006 Dublin International Piano Competition, 2010 Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition, 2011 Cleveland International Piano Competition, 2001 Gina Bachauer International Young Artists Piano Competition, 2002 Geneva International Music Competition, and 2000 Missouri Southern International Piano Competition.

Kyu Yeon has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Severance Hall, BOZAR, Jordan Hall, Seoul Arts Center, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, New World Center in Miami, Penderecki European Centre for Music, Tivoli Vredenburg in Utrecht and Opera de Rennes.

She has appeared as a soloist with a number of orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, New World Symphony, National Orchestra of Belgium, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonietta Cracovia, Utah Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, Hungarian Chamber Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra, and the RTE National Symphony Orchestra. As an avid chamber musician, she was invited to perform at the Casals Festival in France, Emanacje Festival in Poland, Great Mountains Winter Festival, Seoul Spring Festival, Seoul International Music Festival, and Miami Chamber Music Festival.

Born in Seoul, Kyu Yeon Kim studied at the Korean National University of Arts (BM) and later at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. Kim is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music (Diploma), New England Conservatory (MM), Cleveland Institute of Music (Artist Diploma), and Manhattan School of Music (DMA), where she worked with Gary Graffman, Russell Sherman, and Sergei Babayan.

Her debut album, Rameau & Schubert, was released by DUX label in 2017, and her second album, Voyage, was released by Sony Classical in 2021. She currently serves as an assistant professor of piano at Seoul National University.

BRANNON CHO, CELLO
Praised for his “burnished tone, spellbinding technique, and probing musical mind” (Boston Classical Review), cellist Brannon Cho has emerged as an outstanding artist of his generation. He is the First Prize winner of the prestigious 6th International Paulo Cello Competition and is also a top prize winner of the Queen Elisabeth, Naumburg, and Cassadó International Cello Competitions.

Most recently, Brannon Cho is the recipient of the 2020 Janos Starker Foundation Award, the Landgraf von Hessen Prize from Kronberg Academy, the 2019 Ivan Galamian Award previously held by James Ehnes, and is a scholarship holder in the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation.

Brannon Cho has appeared as a soloist with many of the top orchestras around the world, including the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Belgian National Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, and Orchestre Philharmonique Royale Liège, under world-renowned conductors such as Susanna Mälkki, Stéphane Denève, Christian Arming, and Hugh Wolff.

As a lover of chamber music, Brannon Cho has shared the stage with artists such as Anne-Sophie Mutter, Christian Tetzlaff, Gidon Kremer, and Joshua Bell. Upcoming performances include Schubert’s Octet with Isabelle, Faust, and Tabea Zimmermann and the debut recital of Trio Seoul.

Brannon Cho’s recent and upcoming solo performance highlights include the Cello Biënnale Amsterdam, Armenia International Music Festival, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, Kumho Art Hall in Seoul, Rheingau Musik Festival with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Vancouver Chamber Music Society, and Seoul Arts Center. Recently, he replaced Alisa Weilerstein in Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante with the Belgian National Orchestra.