Trailblazing Korean pianist returns to share his admiration of Beethoven with Hong Kong
- Seong-Jin Cho talks about his early years, the pressure of competing, life as a young professional musician, and why he enjoys playing in London
Seong-Jin Cho is a rising star of classical music. He won the International Chopin Piano Competition in 2015, the first South Korean to do so, at the age of 21. This brought him immediate global attention and soon he was playing in the world’s best concert halls.
Now 24, we talk to him about being a young professional musician and his upcoming performance with Sir Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia - Roma at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre on November 23.
Winning the competition itself doesn’t mean so much to me; playing in London, New York, Paris, Berlin … is much more important.
You started playing music at quite a young age – did you always feel an affinity for music?
I started playing piano at the age of six as a hobby. I began to practise seriously when I was 10. My parents were not musicians, but they listened to classical music a lot, and there were always recordings in our house. So I’ve always felt natural with classical music. I like listening to and playing instruments.
Were you only drawn to the piano?
Actually I also played the violin, for five or six years, as a hobby. But I always felt more comfortable with the piano. I think it was because the violin is played standing up, while the piano is played when you’re sitting down.
