“Stylish clarinetist” by NY Times, Paul Won Jin Cho appears as an orchestral player, soloist, period instrumentalist, and conductor.  He joined the Binghamton Philharmonic as Principal Clarinet in 2016.

Born and raised in South Korea, Mr. Cho picked up the clarinet at the age of eleven. After winning first place at the Donga Competition in Seoul, Mr. Cho got exemplified from the national army service and moved to the US.  His continuous endeavor led him to win at the Koussevitzky Young Artists Award, the Leni Fe Bland Scholarship, T. D. Nyfenger Memorial Prize, and the Dean’s Prize at Yale School of Music.

Passionate about orchestral playing, Mr. Cho served principal clarinet at the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the Tanglewood Music Center, the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, and the under the baton of Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Myung-Hun Chung, James Levine, and Kent Nagano among others. He performed concertos with The Yale Philharmonia, Cornell Chamber Orchestra, and the Sebastian Chamber Players with whom he performed the Mozart Clarinet Concerto on period basset clarinet.

As a core member with Decoda, Quintet of the Americas, Mr. Cho also enjoys playing in Broadway pit orchestra in Les Misérables and Fiddler on the Roof.  On Sundays, he frequently appears at the Redeemer Presbyterian Church weekly services.

As a conductor, Mr. Cho serves as a resident conductor of Albano Ballet in Hartford, CT where he conducts Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker every Christmas season.  Also he conducted the Columbia Doctor’s Orchestra, and spent a summer at Bard College participating Conductor’s Institute.  He serves as a director of New Living Voices choir of New Frontier Church.

After graduating from Yale, University of Southern California, Seoul National University and Korean National University of Arts, Mr. Cho completed his fellowship with Ensemble ACJW in 2012. As a fellow, Mr. Cho collaborated with Pablo Heras-Casado, Meredith Monk, Sir Simon Rattle, Jessica Rivera, and David Robertson, and taught at P.S. 200 in Brooklyn. These days, he share his arts of playing with students at New York Music School in Tenafly, NJ.