TOMOKO AKASAKA, Viola
Tomoko Akasaka began studying the violin at the age of five and entered the high school of Toho conservatory at the age of fifteen. Once graduated, she joined the Franz Liszt Academy in Hungary. Upon her return to Japan, she switched from playing violin to the viola, and obtained a diploma from Toho Conservatory.
Currently, she is a student of Nobuko Imai and assistant professor at the Convervatory of Geneva.
Tomoko Akasaka won numerous international prizes including the first prize in the 12th Japan Classical Music Competition and third prize in Munich in the 53rd ARD International Music Competition.
Tomoko Akasaka has played both as solist and as chamber-musician; as solist, she played with the Bayerische Rundfunk, the Münchener Chamber Orchestra, the Kioi Symphonietta, the Japan Chamber Orchestra, and The ensemble Boswil, under direction of conductors such as Seiji Ozawa, Rüdiger Bohn, Günther Herbig, and Heichiro Ooyama.
More recently, she has played a series of remarkable recitals in Japan, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany and France; a series of recitals by Tomoko Akasaka has been broadcasted by NHK-TV in all of Japan. Tomoko Akasaka has performed with, amongst others, Gidon Kremer, Robert Mann, Mstislav Rostropovich, Heinz Holliger, Christoph Poppen, Charles Neidich, Nobuko Imai, Lukas Hagen, Menahem Presler, Frans Helmerson, Florence Sitruk, Maurice Bourgue, Antoine Tamestit, Kai Vogler, Julius Berger and Danjulo Ishizaka in international music festivals such as Lockenhaus, Saito-Kinen Festival, Festival Amadeus, Festival Archipel, Alba music festival, Shubertiade, ARD Music Festival and Albert musikfest. In Europe, she has played in, amongst others, Victoria Hall Geneva, Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, Konzerthaus Berlin, Schloss Elmau and Schloss Nymphenburg in Munich.
Tomoko Akasaka currently enjoys a special scholarship of the Rohm Music Foundation, awarded to her in 2006 and lasting until the end of her studies.
