
The musician Nashi Young Cho, winner of the Main-Kinzig District Culture Prize 2025, died a few days ago as a result of a traffic accident.
Main-Kinzig-Kreis – “Nashi Young Cho stands for musical curiosity without blinkers,” was the motto at the laudatory speech for the awarding of the culture prize in Gelnhausen a few months ago. “She combines jazz with folk songs, electronic textures with literature, multilingual texts with visual art and uses them to develop sound worlds that surprise and touch.” Now the artist has died due to a traffic accident.
She lived and worked in Hanau and Schöneck and cooperated with artists from different areas. On social networks, many friends and companions expressed their dismay over Nashi Young Cho's unexpected death. District Administrator Thorsten Stolz (SPD) and Ingrid Sonntag-Ramirez Ponce, chairwoman of the jury for the Main-Kinzig Culture Prize, reacted with deep sadness to the news of the artist's sudden death.
Main-Kinzig district mourns cultural award winner Nashi Young Cho
Nashi Young Cho, daughter of Korean immigrants, was born in Heidelberg and studied in Frankfurt. She grew up musically and took piano lessons at the age of six. She received awards at “Jugend jazzt” and other music competitions.
In addition to her artistic work, she worked as a radio presenter, appeared as an actress in small cinema productions and lent her voice to several animated films and children's audio books.
“With Nashi Young Cho, our city and our region is losing an exceptionally versatile and curious artist who always saw music as an open space for encounters,” said Hanau’s mayor Claus Kaminsky, praising her work. “She brought genres together, crossed cultural boundaries and brought people into conversation through her art.” Her openness, warmth, intelligence, courage and wit were highlighted in obituaries on online platforms. (sh, tmb)
People are repeatedly honored with cultural prizes. It was only in February that Dr. Thomas Heiler received the culture prize of the city of Fulda.





