Duxbury Music Festival alum, violinist Ahra Cho is a versatile and enthusiastic musician. She began intensive studies at the age of ten at the Korean National University of Arts Pre-college Division and went on to receive her bachelor's degree at Seoul National University as an honor student, under the tutelage of Ju-Young Baek. In 2015, she won the Mozart Classical String Competition in New York City, using that steppingstone to make her debut in the United States with the Manhattan School of Music String Chamber Orchestra. She has won top acclaimed prizes from the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Young Artist Competition, the Duxbury Music Festival Concerto Competition, and The Chamber Music Competition.
In January 2022, she joined the Omaha Symphony as associate concertmaster, having previously served as substitute musician for the New York Philharmonic, as well as concertmaster of the Manhattan Chamber Sinfonia, Manhattan Soloists Ensemble in New York. She continues to perform throughout North America and Asia with renowned orchestras such as the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the Jeonju Philharmonic Orchestra, Korean Chamber Orchestra, Seoul National Symphony Orchestra, Manhattan Soloists Ensemble, and the Duxbury Music Festival Orchestra. Ms. Cho has performed at the Seoul Arts Center and Kumho Arts Hall in South Korea, and in various venues throughout the United States and abroad, including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Kaufman Music Center.
Ms. Cho moved to the United States to pursue her MM degree and professional studies certificate, at the Manhattan School of Music, under the tutelage of Lucie Robert, with full scholarships, respectably. In 2019, Ms. Cho earned her Artist Diploma while studying with the former concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic Glenn Dicterow and Associate Principal, second violin group Lisa Kim of the New York Philharmonic. She was the first student ever to earn an Artist Diploma of Orchestral Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music in its one-hundred-year history.