As a Latin GRAMMY nominee, Jisoo Ok enjoys a multi-faceted and vibrant musical career as a cellist, festival director, arranger, orchestrator and educator. Deeply committed to exploring connections with musicians from other backgrounds as well as artists of other disciplines, she has collaborated with distinguished artists such as latin jazz clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera, tango pianist Pablo Ziegler, bandoneonist Hector Del Curto, jazz violinist Regina Carter and bassist Ron Carter.
As a soloist, she has performed with Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Lancaster Symphony Orchestra and Richmond Symphony. She has performed at prestigious venues and festivals, such as La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest, Aspen Music Festival, the Chautauqua Institute, Carnegie Hall, Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, Laguna Beach Music Festival, Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, Festival de Musica dos Capuchos in Portugal, and National Concert Hall in Taiwan.
With her husband, Hector Del Curto, Ms. Ok co–produced and released two critically acclaimed albums, Eternal Piazzolla and Eternal Tango, which was featured on BBC News and Public Radio International’s The World. She also appears on Rojo Tango with bass-baritone Erwin Schrott released on Sony Classical, on Horizon: Piano and Chamber Works by Gareth Farr with pianist Henry Wong Doe, on Django Festival Allstars with gypsy jazz guitarist Dorado Schmitt, and on Introducing Letizia Gambi with Lenny White, Chick Corea, Ron Carter, Gil Goldstein, and Patrice Rushen.
Born in Seoul, Korea but grew up in New Zealand, Jisoo began cello studies at age eleven to escape from studying violin. Her early teachers included James Tennant and Natalia Pavlutskaya. She has participated in numerous Master Classes with Janos Starker, Bernard Greenhouse, Paul Katz, Laurence Lesser and Anner Bylsma. She received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School as a recipient of the Irene Diamond Graduate Fellowship and the Heward Memorial Scholarship, studying with Bonnie Hampton and Fred Sherry and she studied chamber music with Itzhak Perlman and Robert Mann.
Festival Director
Jisoo is the co-founder and director of the Stowe Tango Music Festival, the premier tango music festival in the United States, noted both for its unique series of performances and its high level of tango music training.
Educator
Jisoo has been teaching for more than 20 years. She has trained in Suzuki pedagogy with Pam Davenport at the School for Strings in NYC. Currently, she is a faculty at the Lucy Moses School at Kaufman Music Center, the Bard College Conservatory of Music Preparatory Division and Suzuki Virtuoso Academy in Mineola, NY. She also teaches privately in Long Island and NYC.
Her cello students have won numerous competitions and have been accepted to New England Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, The Juilliard School Pre-College, MSM Pre-College, Indiana University, All-National Honors Orchestra and All-State Orchestra.
In 2020, she has published a series of books for young cellists called Hello Cello Positions! The books were No. 1 New Release on Amazon in Cello book category.
Arranger/Orchestrator
Jisoo’s arrangements, orchestrations and transcriptions have been performed by top orchestras such as Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Billings Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival Chamber Orchestra, Hector Del Curto Tango Orchestra and Stowe Tango Music Festival Orchestra.
She studied orchestration at The Juilliard School with Jude Vaclavik and Daniel Ott.
Listen to Oblivion (Arrangement)
Listen to Milongueando en el 40 (Transcription)