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RUFUS
CHOI, California pianist and recent First Place
($50,000) and People's Choice ($10,000) prize winner
in the notable and first JOSE ITURBI INTERNATIONAL
MUSIC COMPETITION which is making waves in the world
press, has always felt his American birth and Korean
heritage imparted an international aura and
underlying wanderlust to a musical career which has
found him performing in all parts of the world from
childhood to the present. Some of the countries
which come to mind are, of course, America (as
Yamaha Artist and guest artist on ABC, CBS, KKGO,
and WQXR television and radio broadcasts and in solo
appearances at notable venues, including the Los
Angeles Music Center and AMRON solo recital at
Zipper Hall, New York Lincoln Center and
Weill Recital Hall solo program at Carnegie Hall,
Pasadena Ambassador Auditorium, San
Francisco Herbst Theatre, Savannah
Onstage in Georgia and as a major prize winner in
the International Joanna Hodges Piano Competition in
Palm Desert, and at the Louisiana
International Piano Competition in Alexandria,
including a solo performance with the Rapides
Symphony Orchestra); Austria (Salzburg
Festival); Cyprus (Nicosia
Concerts and Master Classes); England
(Oxford Philomusica performances);
France (Tours Festival,
performances in Angoustrine and Osseja);
Germany (Goettingen
Symphony Orchestra concert, as soloist with Martin
Braus conducting, in a recent palace concert at the
world famous Herrenhausen Gardens);
Italy (Rovere D'oro International Piano
Competition major prize winner); Korea
(performance at Seoul Arts Center and at
Sejong Hall, soloist with the Puchon
Philharmonic, and major prize winner in the Han
Romanson International Piano Competition);
Mexico (performances in Monterrey
and top prize in the Parnassos International Piano
Competition) Netherlands (Utrecht
International Liszt Piano Competition and
performances); Russia (Moscow
International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition and
Diploma Awards in 1998 and 2002); Spain
(Puigcerda Festival); Switzerland
(Locarno Music Festival); Taiwan
(Taipei Music Festival at the National
Concert Hall and major prize winner in the Taiwan
International Piano Competition and soloist with the
National Symphony Orchestra). This truly
international artist is a graduate of The Juilliard
School (BM, MM) and the Soloklassen at the Musik
Hochschule in Hannover, Germany. His teachers
include Vladimir Krainev, Konstantin Sirounian,
Bruce Sutherland, and Oxana Yablonskaya.
Some future musical ventures include recordings in
Russia for Classical Records and in San Francisco
with Con Brio Recordings. Highlights in the
2007-2008 season include performances in Frankfurt,
Germany, with the Russian Chamber Philharmonic
orchestra, and a concert tour of Korea managed by
ArtsBank. In the 2008-2009 season, Mr. Choi will
perform at HOAM Art Hall in Seoul, Korea, and is
also scheduled to appear with the South Bay Chamber
Orchestra in Los Angeles. Also, he has been invited
to perform for a documentary on "The Life of Franz
Liszt" which will broadcast on PBS in 2008.
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