Anne Akiko Meyers is celebrated as one of the world’s premiere concert violinists. Meyers was born in San Diego, California and grew up in Southern California. Starting her studies at age 4, she first performed with a local orchestra at the age of 7, then burst into prominence at age 11, when she twice performed on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The following year she made her New York Philharmonic debut with Zubin Mehta conducting, and was soon performing throughout the United States, Japan, Australia and Europe. By the time her debut disc of the Barber and Bruch violin concertos with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was released at age 18, she was recognized as one of the stars of her generation.

She studied with Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld at the Colburn School of Performing Arts, Josef Gingold at Indiana University, and Felix Galimir, Masao Kawasaki and Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School. At age 23, she was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Actively performing and commissioning new pieces regularly, she has premiered works by composers such as David Barker, Mason Bates, Jakub Ciupinski, John Corigliano, Roddy Ellias, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Jennifer Higdon, Wynton Marsalis, Olivier Messiaen, Akira Miyoshi, Arvo Part, Manuel Ponce, Gene Pritsker, Somei Satoh, Chris Botti, Il Divo and Joseph Schwantner.

Meyers has been a regular guest at the world’s most prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, the Hollywood Bowl, Lincoln Center, Suntory Hall and the Sydney Opera House. She has been the featured soloist with the Boston Symphony, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Minnesota Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo’s NHK Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Vienna Symphony and the Warsaw Philharmonic.

Recently, Anne played a special benefit recital for Play For Japan in San Francisco.  Meyers also performed with Ryuichi Sakamoto at New York’s Japan Society, raising funds for the Japan Earthquake Fund during a marathon 12-hour concert.  She has also performed in front of 750,000 people in Sydney, Australia’s Harbour, celebrating their 200th Bicentennial and has performed for dignitaries including the Emperor and Empress of Japan.

This coming February, Meyers’ eagerly anticipated Bach ‘Air’ album will be released. It features the violin concerti as well as the double concerto where Meyers played both parts on the 1697 ex-’Napoleon/Molitor’ and the 1730 ‘Royal Spanish’ Stradivari violins with the English Chamber Orchestra. Prior albums include Seasons…dreams, featuring music with harp and piano and includes several world premieres, and Smile.  Last month, she released performances with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra and several recital programs.

(All information adapted from artist website.  Photo by Anthony Parmelee.)