Samantha Cho

(She/Her)
Pre-College
  • Early Childhood Piano
Samantha Cho headshot

Contact

Departments

Professional Development

Education

DMA, University of Minnesota

MM, Cleveland Institute of Music

BM, Northwestern University

Ensembles

Ramey Piano Trio

Courses Taught

Piano Pedagogy

Q&A

What is your hometown?

Torrance, CA

What is your favorite recording?

Horowitz's last live concert, Clara Haskil's Mozart and Schubert, Schnabel's Beethoven Piano Concertos, Rachmaninoff playing Rachmaninoff and many more.

What are you passionate about outside of music?

Nature, history, spicy food, family, my cat

Who were your major teachers?

Robert Turner, Paul Schenly and Alexander Braginsky

What is a favorite quote that you repeatedly tell students?

Not a quote, but the idea that if you are affected by a work of art, it's because you possess that same quality within you (Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf.)

What question do you wish students would ask sooner rather than later?

Tell me about life after graduation!

What was the defining moment when you decided to pursue music as a career?

My first lessons with Robert Turner were a major influence.

If you weren't a musician or teacher, what do you think you would be doing now?

Possibly graphic designer

What is your daily practice routine?

I like to start by sight-reading something fun that's not part of an upcoming recital/deadline.

If you could play only three composers for the rest of your life, who would they be?

Bach, Beethoven and Debussy.

What is your unrealized project?

Performing Ravel Miroirs

What do you think makes a concert experience unique?

The personality of the artist, the memory of it

Biography

Korean-American pianist Samantha Cho is currently Professor of Piano Pedagogy at San Francisco Conservatory. She has performed on San Francisco Symphony's SoundBox series, Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert, Noontime Concert and Classical KING. Passionate about playing chamber music, Samantha has performed with members of the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra. Her solo and chamber music recitals have been broadcast on ArteTV, WFMT, Classical KING, KTSF 26 and NBC Bay Area.

Samantha is also passionate about teaching students of all ages. She has held the position of Associate Faculty at Cabrillo College since 2022 and maintains a private piano studio in San Francisco Bay where she lives with her husband, daughter and cat.

Samantha received her BM at Northwestern University, MM at Cleveland Institute of Music and DMA at University of Minnesota. Born in Los Angeles, she began her childhood piano lessons with Robert Turner and continued her studies with Paul Schenly, Kathryn Brown, Sylvia Wang and Alexander Braginsky.