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TAMAKI KAWAKUBO

Silver medallist of the 2002 Tchaikovsky Violin Competition and first-prize winner of the 2001 Pablo Sarasate International Violin Competition, Virtuoso violinist Tamaki Kawakubo is a veteran of the concert stage. She has quickly established herself as a formidable artist possessing a masterful technique and a tone that “ranges from velvety-soft to gripping drama.” She has performed with such leading orchestras as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Rochester Philharmonic, Naples Philharmonic and the Detroit, Houston, Fort Worth, Cincinnati, Toledo, Quebec, Baltimore, New York Chamber, San Francisco, Syracuse, North Carolina, Greensboro, Tueson, San Diego, Tacoma, Spokane, Honolulu and Winnipeg symphonies. After a highly successful collaboration with Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Sy,phony in 2001-02, Miss Kawakubo begins her 2002-03 season in the United States with the San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas in its opening concerts. She also returns to the El Paso and Colonial (NJ) symphonies and collaborates with Larry Rachleff and Symphony II in Chicago. Other engagements last season included the Toledo Symphony, Knoxville Symphony and Rhode Island Philharmonic and a recital in West Palm Beach. She also performed numerous recitals in Spain in addition to performing throughout Japan with Orchestras and in recital.

Miss Kawakubo’s 2000-01 season in the United States included appearances with the Pacific, Seattle, Hilton Head (SC) and Indianapolis symphonies, the Fresno Philharmonie and a recital at the Cummer Art Gallery in Jacksonville, Florida. She gave recitals in Japan, Lithuania, Russia and Sweden. Additionally, Miss Kawakubo performed the Chaconne from John Corigliano’s soundtrack to the film The Real Violin with the EOS Orchestra at New York’s Lehman Center, with the composer in attendance. In Summer 2001, She appeared in recital in Guatemala City and Antigua, Guatemala under the auspices of the Japanese Embassy in Guatemala and returned again in summer 2002.

Recent summers are highlighted by Miss Kawakubo’s chamber music collaboration with Christoph Eschenbach at Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein Festival. She performed with Maestro Eschenbach at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival where she had appeared previously in recital on the festival’s prestigious “Rising Stars” series. The Chicago Tribune wrote, “She played with great poise and assurance, molding her big sound to Eschenbach’s athletic pianism in an unfailingly musicial manner.” In recent summers she has appeared at the Blossom Music Festival with the Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Jahja Ling, at New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival; toured Japan as soloist with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra with Gerard Schwarz Conducting; and appeared with the Boston Pops and John Willaims.

Winner of a 1997 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Miss Kawakubo began her violin studies at the age of five in Los angeles. She studied with Robert Lipsett at the R.D. Colburn school of Performing Arts in Los Angeles and with Dorothy Delay and Masao Kawasaki at the Juilliard School. In addition to her career as soloist, she presently studies with Zakhar Bron at the Musik Hochschule in Köln, Germany.