A. Kori Hill

Meet Jinjoo Cho. She’s a violinist. She was born in Seoul, South Korea, and moved to the United States in 2002, when she was a teenager. She earned a bachelor’s, master’s, and professional studies certificate from the Cleveland Institute of Music.  

While she was doing all that, she was setting the stage for her performing career. In 2014, she won first place in the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis and hasn’t looked back.  

She’s soloed with major orchestras and conductors, including The Cleveland Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, JoAnn Falletta, Tito Muñoz, and Kent Nagano. She’s also a dedicated teacher; she currently serves as a violin professor at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music.  

One of many cool things about Jinjoo is that she’s not afraid to try new things. In addition to traditional rep, Jinjoo has performed and premiered works that require 360° projections or feature dancers.  

One of these is Toy Store by Juri Seo, a multi-movement work that explores the joy and quirkiness of childhood toys. The movement “Jack-in-the-Box” is so much fun; it sounds like a warped soundtrack to Pac-Man or Super Mario game, full of metallic sounds, electronic organ chords, and pointed articulations. Can you hear the difference between what’s electronic and what’s Jinjoo’s violin?  

If your parent or guardian is ok with it, check out this Instagram reel of Jinjoo playing this same movement with the images projected in the background and see how the violin and the electronic backtrack interact and intersect.   

Jinjoo is a highly dynamic performer; it’s rare that you don’t see her moving and feeling the music very deeply. Check out her performance of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Fantasy for Solo Violin, or Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the Busan Philharmonic.  

Whether it’s new music or music that’s been performed and recorded dozens of times, Jinjoo makes sure she brings her personal stamp to it. It’s an important reminder that even when you’re learning rep that has an established performance tradition, you can’t just perform it like everyone else does. It’s important to make your interpretation unique, even if you’re not told directly, and even if some folks don’t like your creative decisions. You must experiment to find what you like.  

What is a composition you’re studying that has a long performance tradition? What can you do within your interpretation to make it uniquely yours?