Edward Cho

• M309 Scales Fine Arts Center

Edward Cho (D.M.A., M.M., B.Mus.) is a Canadian-Korean cellist, pianist, and composer, originally from Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. He has been a two-time grand winner of the Competitive Music Festival of New Brunswick, winner of the Ken Murray Concerto Competition, and a laureate of the Elora TD Canada Trust Competition and the Canadian National Competition.

Cho has been featured as a soloist with Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Stratford Symphony, Wilfrid Laurier University Orchestra, and Symphony New Brunswick. Moreover, Cho used to be a piano major. In 2010, he performed both Edvard Grieg’s piano concerto and Edward Elgar’s cello concerto in a single evening titled ‘Three Edwards’ with the University of Waterloo Orchestra. As an active international artist, Cho has performed in various countries, including the United States, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and South Korea. A recent highlight was performing at the Berlin Philharmonie in 2021 with the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra as part of Musikfest Berlin.

As a chamber musician, Cho has studied under several acclaimed groups and individuals, including the Takacs Quartet, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Stanley Ritchie, Anne Epperson, the Pacifica Quartet, Mark Kaplan, Kevork Mardirossian, Joseph Swensen, and the Penderecki
Quartet. Just this year, Cho co-founded the St. Andrews Chamber Music Festival and led as co-Artistic Director in its first edition in 2024.

His primary cello teachers were Peter Stumpf at Indiana University-Bloomington and Paul Pulford at Wilfrid Laurier University. Having accumulated a unique variety of musical experience throughout his studies, including conducting, composition, Baroque cello, and advanced music theory, Cho aspires to share his range of knowledge and a profound joy of music through his performances and teaching. Further, having been a mechatronics engineering student with an interest in theoretical physics before his focus on music, Cho enjoys serving as a catalyst between the ever-evolving technological advancements and the musical world.