Biography

Hayoung Choi was born in Germany in 1998. The young cellist of South Korean descent was initially taught by Hyong Won Chang and Myung-Wha Chung at the Korean National Institute for the Gifted in Arts in Korea and then studied at the Purcell School of Music in Hertfordshire (England) with Alexander Boyarsky. Since 2014, she has continued her studies at Kronberg Academy, first with Prof. Frans Helmerson and since 2017 with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt. In the same year, Hayoung became a faculty member of Kronberg Academy's Emanuel Feuermann Conservatory.

Hayoung holds a scholarship from the International Academy of Music in Liechtenstein, where she regularly takes part in the academy's intensive weeks and activities.

She is the winner of the “Queen Elisabeth Competition for Cello” in 2022. She has also won other 1^st prizes, such as the “International Krzysztof Penderecki Cello Competition” in Kraków in 2018. She is also the youngest winner of the “International Johannes Brahms Competition”, 1^st prizewinner at the “International Justus Dotzauer Competition for Young Cellists”, at the “International Antonio Janigro Competition” as well as at the “Strad Music Competition” and the “Yewon Music Competition” in Korea.

As a young artist, Hayoung is not only in great demand with the major South Korean orchestras, but she now also gives concerts in Europe. The highlights of her young solo career include performances with the Camerata Salzburg, at the St. Moritz Festival and at the annual festival of the Kronberg Academy Chamber Music Connects the World, where she performed as a soloist together with the Kremerata Baltica. Other orchestras with which Hayoung has performed include the Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra, the Barcelona Chamber Orchestra, the London Trinity Labans Conservatoire Orchestra, the Bucheon Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sungnam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra.

As a chamber musician, she has shared the stage with renowned musicians such as Christian Tetzlaff, Gidon Kremer, Kim Kashkashian, Jörg Widmann, Mitsuko Uchida, Antoine Tamestit, Elena Bashkirova and Martin Helmchen. Recent invitations will bring her to the Berlin Konzerthaus for the first time and as a soloist to the Great Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic, where she will perform one of J. Haydn's cello concertos with the Berlin Symphoniker.

Hayoung has been awarded various scholarships, including the Scholarship for a Young Musician of Promise (Switzerland), Landgraf von Hessen-Prize, Leyda Ungerer Music Prize and the Casals Scholarship, which enables her to study at the renowned Kronberg Academy.

She plays a cello made by Giovanni Paolo Maggini, Brescia (c.1600), generously loaned to her by the Kumho Cultural Foundation and Asiana Airlines, Inc.