Soon Cho

Applied voice lessons, vocal pedagogy, English, Italian, German, and French lyric diction, Music Therapy Voice Lab, and First-Year Experience: Transition to PLU

Acclaimed by Opera News for her “potent” and “intense and incisive” stage presence, and praised by the Cincinnati Post as “regal in bearing, with vocal endowments to match,” lyric mezzo-soprano Dr. Soon Cho is Professor of Music–Voice at Pacific Lutheran University. Before joining PLU, she held faculty appointments at Baylor University and Texas State University.

A dedicated artist-teacher with nearly two decades of full-time university teaching experience, Dr. Cho brings together current vocal pedagogy and voice science with the perspective of an active performer. Her ongoing work as a professional soloist, singing competition adjudicator, and guest teacher informs her teaching, which is grounded in artistic excellence, healthy and sustainable vocal development, and genuine care for the individual singer.

Dr. Cho’s repertoire is wide-ranging, spanning music from the Baroque through the 20th century, as well as contemporary works by living composers. Her performing career has taken her across Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America, with appearances at the Beaune International Baroque Festival in France, Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, the Ghent New Music Festival in Belgium, and the Puccini Festival in Italy. She has appeared as a soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, Kammerphilharmonie Freiburg, and Opera Philharmonic of Bourgas in Bulgaria.

Her operatic repertoire includes the Composer in the South Korean premiere of Ariadne auf Naxos (Strauss), as well as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly (Puccini), Flosshilde in Das Rheingold (Wagner), Dido in Dido and Aeneas (Purcell), Dorabella in Così fan tutte (Mozart), and Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti (Bernstein). Equally committed to new music, she has performed in world premieres of works by living composers, including Greg Youtz’s Tacoma Method with Tacoma Opera and Jared Schwartz’s Schiele in Prison in New York City.

In the Pacific Northwest, Dr. Cho is a frequent soloist with Tacoma Opera, Vashon Opera, Symphony Tacoma, Harmonia Orchestra, and Bremerton Symphony. She also serves each summer on the faculty of the T-Town International Chamber Music Festival & Institute, where she performs new works and collaborates in chamber music with artist-teachers from across the country. Her festival teaching has also included the Brancaleoni International Music Festival in Italy and the Cornish-American Song Institute in Oxford, United Kingdom.
Dr. Cho has presented master classes at leading institutions in the United States and abroad, including Korea National University of Arts in Seoul, the Royal Conservatory of Ghent in Belgium, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the University of Michigan, and the University of Florida. She has served as a judge for Schmidt Vocal Arts competitions for more than a decade at leading university music programs across the United States. She is also active with the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and has served as a state-level Solo & Ensemble adjudicator in both Washington and Texas.

Dr. Cho has studied with distinguished voice teachers and pedagogues including Barbara Honn at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Joyce Farwell at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, Carmen Pelton at the University of Washington, and W. Stephen Smith at the Aspen Music Festival, where she trained for five summers. She continues her vocal and pedagogical study with internationally recognized voice teacher and author David Jones in New York City. Her early professional experience includes young artist engagements with Seattle Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Aspen Opera Center, and Dayton Opera, where she performed in mainstage productions and community outreach programs.

Dr. Cho’s students have earned first-place honors at the Washington State Solo & Ensemble Contest, top prizes in Schmidt Vocal Arts competitions and the Angela Meade Vocal Competition, Texoma Region NATS Singer of the Year honors, and recognition as NATS national finalists. They have also received faculty-nominated and competitive honors including the Dean’s Award for Excellence, Presser Music Undergraduate Scholarship, James D. Holloway Music Scholarship, and other awards recognizing achievement, leadership, and excellence beyond music.

Her students have gone on to highly selective music programs, including the Eastman School of Music, New England Conservatory of Music, and Oberlin Conservatory of Music, as well as university and K–12 teaching positions and professional work in music. She takes equal pride in students who pursue careers outside of music while continuing to make music a meaningful part of their lives. Dr. Cho believes that the discipline, communication, collaboration, confidence, and creative problem-solving developed through musical study are transferable skills that serve students well in any profession and well beyond the classroom.