The Third Competition which was held in Mexico City, Mexico, during September 4-9, 2007, consisted of 3 rounds of auditions.  From over 150 applications from 14 countries, the jury invited 18 participants to conduct the Orquesta Filharmonica UNAM(Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico).  Six were advanced to semi-finals and three were chosen as finalists to conduct a full concert.

David In-Jae Cho, the First Prize Winner of the 3rd Eduardo Mata International Conducting Competition

The winner receives 10,000 USD along with an array of guest conducting engagements during the next 2 seasons: among the 20 guest conducting opportunities will be Venezuela’s renowned Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, Spain’s Orquesta y Coro Madrid and Brazil’s Orquestra Sinfonica de Sao Paulo.

David In-Jae Cho, the First Prize Winner of the 3rd Eduardo Mata International Conducting Competition, has been the Utah Symphony’s Assistant Conductor since September 2006 conducting Pops, Educational, and Subscription Classical Series.  During the 2004-2007 seasons, David served as the Bruno Walter Resident Conductor of the San Antonio Symphony. 

Mr. Cho attended the Tanglewood Music Center in 1999 where he was a conducting fellow.  It was followed by 3 glorious years of study under Larry Rachleff at the Shepherd School of Music.

After serving as the conducting fellow of the New World Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas, Mr. Cho received the 2003 Karajan Fellowship at the world-renowned Salzburg Festival where he worked with the Vienna Philharmonic.  Mr. Cho was chosen by Leonard Slatkin to participate in the 2003 National Conducting Institute.  He debuted with the National Symphony Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Center.

Mr. Cho received Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in piano performance from the Oberlin Conservatory and the Peabody Institute, respectively.  He earned his second Master of Music Degree in conducting at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.