Hailed a “stylish clarinetist” by the New York Times, Paul Won Jin Cho is one of the most active soloist, orchestral and chamber musicians in New York City. Cho has performed throughout the United States, Asia, Australia, and Europe as he recently visited Florida and Prague for student composition projects. Not only playing as a tenured principal clarinetist with the Binghamton Philharmonic, in 2020 he was appointed as a 3rd/Bass clarinetist of the Hartford Symphony. He debuted playing bass clarinet with the Met Opera in their Elektra production and continues to play in the orchestra. Also he plays with Ensemble Échappé and Ensemble LPR. 

Cho’s orchestral appearance includes principal clarinet positions with the American Symphony, New Haven Symphony, Northeastern Pennsylvania, Suwon Philharmonic, Vermont Symphony,  American Youth Symphony and Asian Youth Orchestra.  His concerto performances include the Harbison Concerto for Oboe and Clarinet with Cornell Chamber, the Nielsen Concerto with Yale Philharmonia, Debussy’s Premiere Rhapsodie with Torrance Symphony, the Mozart Concerto with Binghamton Philharmonic, Suwon Philharmonic and with The Sebastians on period basset clarinet.  

An avid chamber musician, Cho recently joined forces with clarinetist David Shifrin to record Beethoven chamber music for the Naxos label. As a fellow of the Ensemble Connect, Cho performed at Carnegie Hall more than a dozen times, collaborating with Timo Andres, Christopher Cerrone, Pable Heras-Casado, Andrew Norman, Sir Simon Rattle, David Robertson, and Jessica Rivera Shafer. Upon finishing the program, Cho became a core member of Decoda, the first ever Affiliate Ensemble of Carnegie Hall. 

Cho’s passion for the latest compositions of clarinet led him to various projects with living composers. In a group or a solo, he has performed the works by Thomas Ádes, Brad Balliet, Caterina di Cecca, Jane Antonia Cornish, Alexandra Gardner, Texu Kim, Tawnie Olsen, Kay Rhie, Huang Ruo, Sean Sheppard, Christopher Trapani, and Tania León to name a few. Using various instruments including E flat clarinet, bass clarinet and basset horn and equally comfortable on multi-phonics, circular breathing, and flutter tonguing, Cho enjoys the challenges that creators bring to his instruments and playing ability.

During the summers, Cho has toured throughout Europe with Youth Orchestra of the Americas and he was a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow, performing under the baton of James Levine, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and Stefan Asbury.  In recent summers, Cho has played in Lincoln Center Summer Festivals, Geneva Light Opera, MostArts Festival, and Nesin Cultural Arts Summer Music Academy.

His teaching career has started guiding undergraduate clarinet players at Yale University.  After moving to New York City, Mr has become a clarinet instructor at Horace Mann School, and New York Music School in Tenafly, NJ.  He is a F. Arthur Uebel Clarinets artist.