John Heo

Born in Korea and raised in Northbrook, John Heo is a first-year Violin Fellow at the New World Symphony. Prior to joining NWS, he was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

As a soloist, John has performed with numerous orchestras such as the Kishwaukee Symphony, Lake Geneva Symphony, Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago, Fox Valley Symphony and Ottawa Chamber Symphony. He was a guest soloist with the Lake Geneva Symphony in 2017.

An avid chamber musician, John’s string quartet received third place at the St. Paul Chamber Music Competition in 2019 and was featured on WFMT’s Introductions. During the summers, he attended numerous music festivals, including the Brian Lewis Young Artist Program, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Center Stage Strings, Chautauqua, Heifetz International Music Institute, Tanglewood Music Center and National Repertory Orchestra.

John earned his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where he studied with Mauricio Fuks and Kyung Sun Lee and was a recipient of the Barbara and David Jacobs Scholarship. He began his studies at the Betty Haag Academy with Jackie Fischer and later studied with Cornelius Chiu. He was also a student of Almita Vamos at the Music Institute of Chicago Academy, a pre-college conservatory program.

John has received top prizes in competitions including the American Opera Society, Blount Slawson, Kishwaukee, DePaul, Sejong and Chinese Confucius. He has performed in master classes for Noah Bendix-Balgley, Ida Kavafian, Ilya Kaler, Danielle Belen, Robert Chen, Oliver Wille and Frank Almond.

Outside of music, John enjoys traveling with his family, going to the gym and swimming.