Program for Samantha Cho – January 17, 2025
Friday, January 17, 2025 at 8 pm
download a copy of this program here.
Samantha Cho, piano
with special guest Alison Lee, piano
Program
Monica Chew
Tether
World Premiere
Daixuan Ai
Prelude After a Folk Song
Toru Takemitsu
Rain Tree Sketch I & II
Edvard Grieg
Lyric Suite, Op. 12
Earl Wild
Virtuoso Etude No. 4 “Embraceable You” after Gershwin
Intermission
J. S. Bach
from Three Cantatas for Four Hands Piano
Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, BWV 147
Sleepers Awake, BWV 140
Alison Lee, secundo
Samantha Cho, primo
Claude Debussy
Petite Suite, L. 65
Alison Lee, secundo
Samantha Cho, primo
About the musicians
Born in Los Angeles, Korean-American pianist Samantha Cho is active in the Bay Area as recitalist, chamber musician and educator. She has performed on San Francisco Symphony’s Chinese New Year Concert, Live from WFMT, Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert in Chicago, Noontime Concert Series, Concerts at Presidio Chapel, and Seattle’s Classical KING. Highlights include being featured on NPR Live Sessions and ArteTV in Seoul, Korea. 2025-2026 appearances include solo and chamber music recitals at Ruthmere Museum Concert series, San Francisco Symphony’s Chamber Concert and Boston Court Pasadena.
An avid chamber recitalist, Samantha frequently collaborates with members of the San Francisco Symphony. Her performances have been broadcast on WFMT, Classical King FM, National Public Radio, KTSF 26, San Francisco Symphony + and NBC Bay Area. Also dedicated as an educator, Samantha is on the faculty at San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Southwest College. Prior positions include Associate Professor of Music at Cabrillo College.
Samantha received her Bachelor of Music at Northwestern University, Master of Music at Cleveland Institute of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts at University of Minnesota. Her childhood teacher, Robert Turner, was renowned as protegee of the Lhevinnes at the Juilliard School. She continued her studies with the following teachers: Paul Schenly, Kathryn Brown, Sylvia Wang, and Alexander Braginsky.
Pianist Alison Lee made her unofficial recital debut at the age of two when, while waiting for a concert to start, she climbed onstage to play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star to scattered applause. She received her first formal lesson on her fifth birthday, and has since become a pianist and educator dedicated to sharing her love for classical music with her community.
Alison has been a featured soloist with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony and the Coeur d’Alene Symphony Orchestra. She is the top prizewinner of Coeur d’Alene Symphony’s National Young Artists Competition, Thursday Musical’s Scholarship Competition, the Dorothy van Waynen Piano Competition, Graves Piano Competition, and is the second prize winner of the Midwest International Piano Competition. Her performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio on KPBX 91.1 (Spokane Public Radio) and WOI-FM 90.1 (Iowa Public Radio).
Alison holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance from the University of Minnesota where she studied with Lydia Artymiw. Her previous teachers include Jon Kimura Parker at Rice University and Angela Cheng at Oberlin Conservatory, along with Hans Boepple and Jed Galant from her pre-college years. She is an alumna of various summer music festivals such as Pianofest in the Hamptons, The Banff Centre’s Piano Master Class, Aspen Music Festival and School, Seattle Piano Institute, Mänttä Music Festival, and the Castleman Quartet Program. Alison currently runs a private studio in Fremont, CA and Berkeley, CA, where she teaches piano, chamber music, and music theory.