As the embodiment of musicality, violinist Kyoko Takezawa electrifies audiences with a richness of playing, a virtuosic confidence of feeling, and a fiery intensity that establishes her as one of today’s foremost violinists.

Her interpretive insight and indisputable talent have made her a sought-after soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras.

After winning the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, Kyoko Takezawa has worked with the most prestigious orchestras worldwide including the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, and the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Cleveland, Baltimore, Saint Louis, Houston, Toronto, Dallas, Montreal, Detroit and Cincinnati, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, BBC, London Symphony, Tonhalle Orchestra of Zurich, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle, Gewandhausorchester Lipsia, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Weimar Staatskapelle, Orchestre National de Radio France, NHK Symphony and New Japan Philharmonic.

She has collaborated with many distinguished conductors, including Seiji Ozawa, Sir Colin Davis, Michael Tilson Thomas, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Kurt Masur, David Zinman, Sir Neville Marriner, Leonard Slatkin, Charles Dutoit, Marek Janowski, Riccardo Chailly and Sir Andrew Davis. She has performed at major venues around the world including Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center in Washington, London’s BBC Proms; Vienna’s Musikverein and Suntory Hall.

A highly accomplished chamber music performer, Ms Takezawa has participated to La Jolla Music Fest, Saratoga Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Taipei and Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival and Great Mountain Music Festival and the Spring Festival in Korea. She is regular guest of the Martha Argerich Festival in Beppu, Japan. As co-director of the Suntory Festival Soloists of Suntory Hall in Tokyo, she has collaborated with the late Isaac Stern, Yo-Yo Ma, Pinchas Zukerman, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Joseph Suk.

Highlights of the 2018/19 season include concerts with New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Mito Chamber Orchestra, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, Japan Century Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Music Concert with Martha Argerich, Mischa Maisky and Antonio Pappano at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia which was televised by RAI and ARTE.

Takezawa has recorded numerous CDs including all Brahms’s Violin Sonatas with pianist Itamar Golan by Sony Music Japan. BMG’s RCA Victor Red Seal label released her recordings of Romanza, Violin concerto Op. 14, with Leonard Slatkin and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Elgar’s Violin Concerto with Sir Colin Davis and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; Bartok’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with Michael Tilson Thomas and the London Symphony, all Mendelssohn’s Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 with Klaus Peter Flor and the Bamberg Symphony.

Kyoko Takezawa’s TV appearances include participation to the BBC channel 4 TV programme’s “Concerto!” where she performed Bartok’s Second Concerto guided by Dudley Moor, to A&E morning show and to the 2-hour documentary by TV Aichi in Japan.

As an educator she is on the faculty of Toho Music School and Tokyo College of Music in Japan and served as a jury member for the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, Menuhin and Wieniawski. She received the prestigious Idemitsu Award for outstanding musicianship and Aichi Art Cultural Award.

She plays Antonio Stradivarius “Lady Tennant” violin (1699) on loan from the Stradivari Society in Chicago.

September 2019