[Up & Coming] Cho Jin-joo talks lifelong relationship with violin

Up & Coming is a series of interviews with emerging artists in various fields of arts and entertainment. ― Ed.

Widely hailed as one of the leading violinists of her generation, 26-year-old Cho Jin-joo continues to make waves in the world of classical music.

However, her relationship with the violin was not one of instant passion. On the contrary, she was introduced to the instrument because her mom believed it would help her child’s brain development.

“My mother had this ambition for her daughter to become a scientist,” Cho said during an interview with The Korea Herald. “She got the idea from Einstein being an amateur violinist.”

“Honestly I think when I first started out I did it because I was good at it more than because I loved it.”

Since she excelled, Cho said it became very clear to everyone around her that the violin was something that was going to be special for her.

Yet, Cho’s curiosity led her to delve into many other pursuits as a child, from skating, swimming to singing and playing the piano.

A drastic change in her attitude to the violin came when she was 14. While at middle school in Korea, she went to Colorado to attend the Aspen Music Festival and ended up meeting renowned violin instructor Paul Kantor in what she referred to as a “love at first sight” moment that completely changed the course of her life. 

“I felt assured that playing the violin was my destiny,” she said.

Cho’s mother decided to leave Korea for Cleveland, Ohio, to enable the aspiring violinist to attend the Cleveland Institute of Music and continue her tutelage under Kantor.

In the months that followed, she received an incredible “jolt of stimulation after stimulation” and came to truly love and appreciate the music she was playing, rather than looking at the violin as something she just happened to be naturally gifted at.

“Honestly when I went to the United States, the huge change that happened to me was that music became fun,” she said. “I started playing in youth orchestras and chamber music. … When that social aspect of music came into the picture, it was just like fireworks. All these neurons just started kicking in and I was just high all the time.”

In just a few short years after moving to the U.S., she had already won most of the local competitions for both high school and collegiate level students, including the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra’s concerto competition and the Cleveland Institute of Music’s collegiate level concerto competition.

In 2006 at 18 years old, Cho decided to enter her first major violin competition ― the Montreal International Musical Competition, where she ended up winning both the First Grand Prize and Radio Canada’s People’s Choice Award.

These feats skyrocketed the young prodigy into the international limelight, allowing her to tour and perform worldwide, as well as notching up countless competition wins, including the gold medal at the Quadrennial International Violin Competition of Indianapolis.

The musician began a four-part concert series in Seoul this year as a Kumho Art Hall resident artist in the company’s concert program for up-and-coming musicians.

From her trials and tribulations after moving to the U.S. to pursue her new life in music, to the pangs of youth, joys of love and reminiscences of life’s most defining and cherished moments, Cho selected a range of classical pieces that she feels best encompasses her life story in her ongoing four-part recital series: The beginning, youth, searching and reminiscing.

“When I play in Korea, more than anywhere else, I feel a certain responsibility to the audience,” said Cho. “I want to bring something that the local audience is not used to hearing, something that they want to hear and something they did not even know they wanted to hear.”

Cho’s remaining “Searching” and “Reminiscing” recitals will be held at the Kumho Art Hall on July 16 and Oct. 1, respectively.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)