Park Ji-won is a writer for The Korea Times who has been covering a wide range of topics from Korea’s culture to its politics. An avid journalism enthusiast to the core, Ji-won brings a thoughtful and unique perspective to every topic she covers. On weekends, you'll often find her contemplating life’s purpose on a yoga mat — with a cup of quality tea in hand. A native Korean speaker by birth and fluent in English through her work, she went to college in Japan and is learning Chinese and French — hoping to add Polish, Russian and Thai to the mix.
Cho Seong-jin named world's most popular pianist
Pianist Cho Seong-jin performs at the digital 2021 Mozart Week held in Salzburg, Austria, on Jan. 27 / Universal Music
By Park Ji-won
By Park Ji-won
Korean pianist Cho Seong-jin was voted the world's most popular pianist, according to a poll by a London-based music website, Monday.
The uDiscoverMusic.com music portal, operated by Universal Music Group, announced that Cho was ranked No. 4 out of the top 25 classical musicians in the world in the first poll of its kind called the “uDiscover Classical 100” to determine the world's favorite classical musicians. Cho ranked the highest among pianists. The poll was conducted with 11,000 participants from around the world between November and January.
Meanwhile, German-born violinist David Garrett was at the top of the list while Italian opera tenor Andrea Bocelli and Dutch violinist and conductor Andre Rieu ranked No. 2 and 3 respectively.
Cho, who has been enjoying worldwide popularity since winning the 17th International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in 2015, has been actively holding solo recitals and playing with renowned orchestras while releasing albums over the last few years.
On the occasion of Mozart's 265th birthday, last month in Salzburg the Deutsche Grammophon recording artist performed Mozart's Allegro in D K626b/16, a unfinished work first discovered in 2018 when the foundation purchased a collection of the composer's scores from a private owner. Cho is also planning to release an album with German baritone Matthias Goerne in April and the duo will hold a recital on April 18 in Seoul.
A number of other Asian and Korean classical musicians also made the list. Chinese American cellist Yo-yo Ma ranked 11th and Chinese pianists Yuja Wang and Lang Lang were ranked 16th and 19th, respectively. Korean pianist and composer Yiruma ranked 25th.