Hannah Cho, oboe

Meet Hannah

Hannah performs on Show 445.

Hannah Cho (oboe), 16, hails from Tustin, California. She is currently a junior at Pacific Academy and a full scholarship student at Colburn Music Academy. She has been recognized as a National YoungArts 2023 finalist, first place winner in the U.S. Navy Band Young Artist Solo Competition, and the California MTNA (Music Teachers National Association) Senior performance competition, second place winner in the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition, U.S Army Orchestra Young Artist Competition, amongst others. As a chamber musician, soloist, and orchestral musician appearing with the NYO2 2022 Orchestra and Principal of the 2022 NAfME All-National Symphony Orchestra, she has played in various halls across the countries multiple times, including the New World Center, Merkin Hall, Nixon Library, and Carnegie Hall. In addition, she performed the Marcello Oboe concerto in May 2023 with the U.S. Navy Band as a follow-up to her 1st place finish in their Young Artist Solo Competition.

She currently studies with Eugene Izotov at Colburn Music Academy and Pacific Symphony oboist Ted Sugata. She previously studied with Curtis faculty and Baltimore Symphony Principal Katherine Needleman on a scholarship, and Santa Monica Symphony Principal Victoria Lee. She has attended masterclasses with Curtis faculty and Philadelphia Principal Philippe Tondre, Juilliard Faculty, and MET opera Co-Principals Nathan Hughes and Elaine Douvas, amongst others.

Hannah’s love for music and the community inspired her to create Empowering Arts (www.empoweringarts.org), a non-profit organization that brings arts to the community with concerts and art classes at various children’s learning centers and multiple nursing facilities throughout Orange County. She also serves as an oboe teacher and a mentor to two elementary school students at El Sol Academy. In her free time, she enjoys running, hiking, baking, reading Asian-authored lit, watching films, trying new coffee shops, going to museums, traveling, and listening to classical and popular music.