ALUMNI: Eunah Cho

By Hannah Cho,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

After leading the Davis High Symphony Orchestra as concertmistress for all three years of high school, 2009 alumna Eunah Cho continues to share her passion for music with young violinists in Davis through private lessons.

Today, Cho is the marketing and development coordinator for the UC Davis One Health Institute. Despite her interest in and pursuit of marketing communications, Cho still reserves a spot for music in her life.

Cho’s parents found an old, worn-out violin at a garage sale. Trying it out, Cho realized she was not motivated to play. Rather, violin became just another responsibility on her homework list.

But when she started playing music with her brother Eunghee, who played the cello, Cho realized that the violin meant much more than tedious practice; it was an opportunity to bond with her brother and to pursue the violin as a serious extracurricular activity.

In high school, music served as a break from the rigorous high school life.

“Between slogging through classes that I hated and a heavy load of AP’s, orchestra was the best fun I had,” Cho said.

Being part of orchestra at school helped Cho establish lasting friendships as well.

“It was great that we had something meaningful in common,” Cho said. “It helped us stay connected even after high school.”

In 2011, Cho performed as concertmistress in the California All-State Music Education Conference, a gathering of talented musicians selected to perform in a concert together. She played in Sacramento Youth Symphony for nine years as well.

“She’s an incredibly driven player […] who knows how to lead,” said Angelo Moreno, her orchestra director at both DHS and Sacramento Youth.

Wanting to keep her connection with music but also explore a more academic field, Cho became a double major in music and communications at UC San Diego. Cho chose communications because “it’s such a broad field and writing was the subject I felt most confident in.”

After college, Cho returned to Davis and sought jobs in neighboring cities like Sacramento, but found herself coming back home each time.

“I’m happy I grew up in Davis,” Cho said. “The tight sense of community really helps create opportunities that try to help young people succeed, whereas in other places, that can be much more difficult.”