Akiko Suwanai

Akiko Suwanai (諏訪内晶子, Suwanai Akiko; born February 7, 1972) is a Japanese classical violinist.

Quick Facts 諏訪内晶子, Born ...

Akiko Suwanai 諏訪内晶子
Born	(1972-02-07) February 7, 1972 (age 53)
Origin	Tokyo, Japan
Genres	Classical
Occupation	Violinist
Instrument	Violin
Years active	1990 – Present
Labels	Decca Records

Website	akiko-suwanai

At the age of 18, she became the youngest winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1990. In addition, she was awarded second prize in the Paganini Competition in 1988 and Queen Elisabeth Competition in 1989 and is a laureate of the Music Competition of Japan.

She has studied with Toshiya Eto at the Toho Gakuen School of Music, with Dorothy DeLay and Cho-Liang Lin at the Juilliard School of Music while at Columbia University, and with Uwe-Martin Haiberg at the Universität der Künste Berlin.^[1]

Until 2019 she played the 1714 Dolphin Stradivarius, on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation. After it was returned she received the "Charles Reade" Guarneri del Gesù on loan from Japanese collector Ryuji Ueno.^[2]

Suwanai was born in Tokyo, Japan. At the age of 2 and a half, she showed an interest in sound, so her parents took her to a nearby violin class, where she first encountered the instrument. She began learning the violin at age 3, starting with weekly lessons. From age 4, her lessons increased to twice a week, where she remembered looking forward to each one. On summer break of her first year in elementary school, her family moved to Machida City, west of Tokyo where she started attending a music school from the second grade. In 1979, Suwanai entered the private Toho Gakuen School of Music’s affiliated ‘Music Class for Children’, a specialised and competitive program across Japan for gifted students. During her childhood, due to her father’s job transfer, she relocated to Nagoya for a period where she studied and was tutored under Shinji Nishizaki, the father of violinist Takako Nishizaki. When she was 14, she studied under the violinist Toshiya Eto. During her middle school years, she won the Japan Student Music Competition (Middle School Division).^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]

In her freshman year of high school, she won the Japan Music Competition Violin Division. She later placed second in the Paganini Competition and the 1989 Japan International Music Competition Violin Division. In the 1989 Queen Elisabeth Competition, one of the world’s three major violin competitions, she won second prize at age 17. The following year, on July 5, 1990, at age 18, she became the youngest ever winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition, attracting global attention. After graduating from Narusedai Junior High School and Toho Girls’ High School Music Department, she completed the Soloist Diploma Course at Toho Gakuen School of Music.

In March 1991, she went to study abroad at the Juilliard School as a trainee sponsored by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, where she studied under instructor Dorothy DeLay. Through a credit-exchange system with Columbia University, she also took courses in political philosophy and political science. She earned her Master’s degree from Juilliard in 1995. Later, in 2009, she passed the entrance exam to the Berlin University of the Arts, where she studied for two years. In 2011, she completed the third-level soloist course (Solistenklasse) and earned Germany’s National Performer Qualification.

In the 1990s, she signed a management contract with Columbia Artists Management in the U.S. (the company closed in 2020). Where she has an exclusive international recording contract with Decca Records a British record label, part of Universal Music Group.

In 1999 Suwanai performed the Japanese premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki’s Violin Concerto No. 2 “Metamorphosen” under the composer’s baton at Suntory Hall. In 2004, she gave the world premiere of Lera Auerbach’s Violin Concerto No. 2 (Op.77) at the Ishikawa Concert Hall. Auerbach was a fellow Juilliard classmate. In 2007, Sawanai premiered Peter Eötvös’s Violin Concerto “Seven” under Pierre Boulez at the Lucerne Festival. In 2008 she gave the Japanese premiere of “Seven” with NHK Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer Etvesch, later performing it in Budapest, Berlin, and London.

She is based in Paris, France, and records primarily in Europe.

Instruments and Recordings

She initially used a Guadagnini violin, but from the 1990 Tchaikovsky Competition onward, she was loaned a Stradivarius violin made in 1690, by a private foundation. Then in 2000, she was granted a 20-year loan of the legendary 1714 “Dolphin” Stradivarius—once used by Jascha Heifetz from the Nippon Music Foundation.

From October 2020, she began using a 1732 Guarneri del Gesù violin known as the “Charles Reade,” on long-term loan from Dr. Ryuji Ueno, a U.S.-based benefactor.

Early Life and Career

Instruments and Recordings

Discography

References

External links

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