“A daring cellist with intense and flamboyant playing.” - Le Soir
“She captured the hearts of the audience and judges with her boldness and her inward-looking as well as expressive playing.” - RTBF
Hayoung Choi is the First Prize Winner of the 2022 Queen Elisabeth Competition for Cello. She has also received First Prize at the 3rd Krzysztof Penderecki International Cello Competition and the Johannes Brahms International Competition, as well as awards such as the Landgrave of Hesse Prize, the Leyda Ungerer Music Prize, and the FENDI Music Award.
Driven by a deep musical curiosity, she is committed not only to the core cello repertoire but also to bringing lesser-known and rarely performed works to light.
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Choi made her debut at the age of twelve with Camerata Salzburg, performing Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1. Since then, she has appeared as a soloist with leading orchestras including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, European Union Youth Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica Orchestra, Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester, PoznaÅ„ Philharmonic Orchestra, Kraków Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Amazonas Filarmônica and Filarmônica de Minas Gerais. Highlights of the current season include her concert series as Artist in Residence at Lotte Concert Hall in Seoul; a Wigmore Hall recital with Alim Beisembayev; and performances with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra, Colorado Festival Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra, Oregon Symphony Orchestra, West Virginia Symphony Orchestra and the Basel Chamber Orchestra.
A passionate chamber musician, Choi has collaborated with celebrated artists such as Sir András Schiff, Gidon Kremer, Christian Tetzlaff, and Mitsuko Uchida. She regularly performs cello and violin duo works with her younger sister, SongHa.
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Born in Bielefeld, Germany, in 1998, she attended the Purcell School in the United Kingdom and later studied at the Kronberg Academy and the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid under Frans Helmerson, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, and Ivan Monighetti. She is currently pursuing Baroque cello studies with Lea Rahel Bader at the University of the Arts Berlin.
Hayoung Choi performs on the 1707 “Ex-Starker” Joseph filius Guarneri cello, generously on loan from an anonymous patron.