Emerging Artist Spotlight | Seho Young

As Cedille approaches the semifinal and final rounds of its Emerging Artist Competition on May 17 and 18, 2025, we’re taking this opportunity to introduce you to the very talented artists participating in this year’s event!

Pianist Seho Young’s playing has been described as “very intelligent and mature . . . thoughtful and polished” (Musical Arts Society of New Orleans). He has appeared in noted venues including Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw, Bratislava’s Philharmonic Hall, Switzerland’s Theatre Le Reflet, Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Seho took first prize and the chamber music award at the 2022 Charles Wadsworth Competition and third prize at the 28^th New Orleans International Piano Competition and 2024 Dallas International Piano Competition. He has appeared as a soloist with the Dallas Chamber Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Brockton Symphony Orchestra, and Princeton University Orchestra. He presented an all-American-composers recital for The Bohemians New York Musicians’ Club at the Kosciuszko Foundation and has been featured on Tulane University’s Concert Piano Series. As part of the International Holland Music Sessions New Masters on Tour, he performed across Europe at iconic venues throughout Amsterdam and Slovakia. Seho is also a passionate chamber musician and harpsichordist, appearing with the Northwestern University Baroque Music Ensemble, Chicago’s Music of the Baroque, and the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra. Seho holds degrees from Princeton and Yale Universities and is currently pursuing his doctorate at Northwestern’s Bienen School of Music.

Learn more about Seho through the video interview and transcription below.

What made you want to become a professional musician?

I decided to pursue a career in music around junior or senior year in college. I was majoring in computer science at the time, but I’ve always done music. It was around that time when my friends and colleagues and also my teacher who’s really influential, convinced me to do more.

Does your background in science inform your approach to music?

There definitely is, and there always has been a correlation between a mathematical way of thinking about life and musical ways of thinking. For example, set theory is a huge topic in math as well, but it also is in music. Analyzing all these different pieces of music. There’s a lot of math involved and a lot of science too, especially recently now with digital forms of music and production.

What motivates you as a musician?

I think one of my biggest conceptual goals as a musician is to do things that no one has ever done before and push boundaries, combining styles and genres. Today, there’s such a big variety of styles of music out there. Musicians, especially classical musicians, have to push themselves to explore all of the different avenues that these technologies provide.

Tell us about the album you would like to create with Cedille Records.

In the process of brainstorming, I have a few ideas. One of them is based around the theme of dance. I’ve come to believe that there are two kinds of music. There’s music that makes you think and music that makes you move. And obviously this is a grand oversimplification. In reality, music exists on a spectrum of a variety of different things. But I think this is one of the spectrums. I really want to explore the area of music that viscerally makes you want to move and want to dance. There’s really not a lot of opportunities like this. I mean, as a musician, I know the competition scene, 99% of them are geared towards live performances. Recording an album gives the artist, I think, a lot more flexibility and the ability to really be creative.