Great artists of tomorrow
Yoon-kyung Cho cellist
BBC Music Magazine’s Rising Star slot is often filled with tales of brilliant young things who first picked up their instrument almost as soon as they could stand. For Korean cellist Yoonkyung Cho, it all happened a little later. ‘I actually played the piano first,’ she tells us, ‘but my piano teacher recommended I learn a string instrument, so I started the cello at the age of nine. And then, as I learned more and more, I really fell in love with it.’
So what was it, then, about the cello that reached the parts that the piano evidently failed to reach? ‘I once listened to the Berlin Philharmonic’s ensemble of 12 cellists,’ she says, ‘and I was really moved how this instrument can have such a big range, and can play the melodies and the bass and all the middle notes too – it sounded like orchestral music, but with only cellos playing. That was very inspiring.’
Yoon-kyung completed her school and university studies in Seoul, but the idea of studying abroad always appealed. And so, at the age of 23, a move to the Juilliard School in New York followed and then, two years later, she headed across the Atlantic, this time to continue her musical education at the Royal College of Music. It has been in London that things have really taken off, not least when, earlier this year, she won the Musicians’ Company Prince’s Prize Competition – a win that came not only with a prize of £10,000, but also the chance to perform in venues such as the Wigmore and Cadogan halls.
Still, though, the studying continues, along with yet another move abroad. Yoon-kyung, now 27, is presently broadening her orchestral experience with the Staatskapelle Berlin under conductor Daniel Barenboim, no less, and she has also enjoyed masterclasses with the leading French cellist Gautier Capuçon. ‘Gautier is really cool!’ she enthuses. ‘As a player he has a uniqueness in his sound – when I listen to a
‘I’ve learnt to have my own sound and my own voice’
recording of him, I can right away say it is him. I’ve learnt that I also need to have my own sound, and my own voice. Gautier appreciates and respects that, and he doesn’t say “do this, do that”, but really gives me a way to build my sound and my cello playing.’