Rufus Choi is a Korean- American pianist who has been highly visible at the Salzburg Festival, Herrenhausen Gardens, Great Hall at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, National Hall in Taipei, Sejong Hall (South Korea), and Seoul Arts Center as well as the Los Angeles Music Center and Pasadena Ambassador Auditorium. Recent appearances include a solo recital in Zipper Hall at the Colburn School and enthusiastically received performances in South Korea at the Busan Cultural Center and the Hoam Art Hall in Seoul. He was welcomed in a sold out event with standing ovations at the opening concert of the Norris Theatre Annual Music Series as soloist with the South Bay Chamber Orchestra playing the E Minor Concerto of Chopin. He is First Place ($50,000) and People’s Choice ($10,000) prize winner in the inaugural Jose Iturbi International Music Competition in 2007, and has received top prizes in numerous other international piano competitions. Choi 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.