Check out Rufus Choi's newly released CD

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, as a Yamaha Artist.   Some of the countries are, of course, America (where national as well as local solo television and radio performances, including ABC, CBS, KKGO, and WQXR, combine with live appearances throughout the country, including some Los Angeles highlights at the Music Center and a Zipper Hall solo recital (sold out) to benefit AMRON, New York Lincoln Center and Weill Recital Hall solo program at Carnegie Hall, Pasadena Ambassador Auditorium, San Francisco Herbst Theatre, Savannah Onstage in Georgia, Palm Desert as a major prize winner in the International Joanna Hodges Piano Competition, Alexandria, also as a winner, in the Lousiana International Piano Competition, 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 palace concert at the wold famous Herrenhausen Gardens, and in Frankfurt with the St. Petersburg Chamber Phil and Juri Gilbo conducting); Italy (Rovere D'oro International Piano Competition major prize winner), Korea (performance at Seoul Arts Center, Hoam Art Hall, Busan Cultural 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, which is the highest degree attainable, at the Musik Hochschule in Hannover, Germany.  His teachers include Vladimir Krainev, Konstantin Sirounian, Bruce Sutherland, and Oxana Yablonskaya. 

Choi's highly anticipated debut album will be released by Cambria Recordings this year. After returning recently from a successful tour in Korea which included concerts at HOAM Art Hall in Seoul and the Cultural Center in Busan, Choi returned to a sold out concert with the South Bay Chamber Orchestra performing the Chopin 1st Concerto.  Highlights in upcoming engagements include performances of the Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1 with the Santa Ana Symphony (Feb. 15th), Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 2 with the Peninsula Symphony (Feb. 22nd), and a solo recital in the Arrowhead Arts Association "Concert Master Series" www.arrowheadarts.org on the 22nd of March.