Winner of the 1990 International Tchaikovsky Competition and the youngest recipient of the first prize in the history of the competition, violinist Akiko Suwanai has established an international career as soloist and recitalist performing regularly in the major cities of Europe, the Americas and Asia.
Akiko Suwanai has collaborated with such renowned conductors as Eliahu Inbal, Lorin Maazel, Sir Neville Marriner, Zubin Mehta, Sir Roger Norrington, Seiji Ozawa, Mikhail Pletnev, André Previn, Yevgeny Svetlanov and Yuri Temirkanov. Highlights of recent seasons include performances of the Berg Violin Concerto at the Lucerne Easter Festival and in Japan with the Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchester under Pierre Boulez; her Berlin Philharmonic debut under Charles Dutoit and tours with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Czech Philharmonic with Vladimir Ashkenazy. Miss Suwanai also toured Europe with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Emmanuel Krivine, Europe and Japan with the Japan Philharmonic under Neeme Järvi and performed with the Orchestre National de France under Myung-Whun Chung.
She gave the Asian premiere of Penderecki's second Violin Concerto under the baton of the composer, subsequently performing the work in Europe, and was re-invited by the composer to perform the work again in 2003 to mark his 70th birthday. In North America Miss Suwanai has performed with New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, Minnesota, Cincinnati, Montreal, Pittsburgh and Seattle Symphony Orchestras and last season returned for performances with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Paavo Järvi and a tour with the Czech Philharmonic under Andrey Boreyko.
Miss Suwanai also regularly appears as a guest performer at festivals around the world, performing at the Evian Festival at the invitation of Rostropovich. Other recent festival appearances have included the Ravinia, Lockenhaus, Marlboro, Lucerne, Rheingau and Berlin Festivals. Recent concerts include performances with the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra under Charles Dutoit in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Mumbai and future highlights include a return visit and European tour with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo, a return visit to the Orchestre National de Belgique under Mikko Franck for a Swiss tour, BBC Symphony Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra under Wolfgang Sawallisch.
Akiko Suwanai has had an exclusive recording contract with Universal since 1996 and her seven releases to date have garnered much critical acclaim. Her releases include Bruch with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields under Neville Marriner, Dvorak and Sarasate with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Ivan Fischer, Sibelius and Walton Violin Concertos with the CBSO and Sakari Oramo, Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn concertos with the Czech Philharmonic and Vladimir Ashkenazy and Takemitsu's Far Calls, Coming Far with NHK Symphony Orchestra under Charles Dutoit. Her most recent recording of French repertoire with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Charles Dutoit was released in 2004.
The recipient of numerous awards, Akiko Suwanai has been a winner at the International Paganini Competition, Italy, the International Japan Competition and the Queen Elisabeth International Competition, Belgium, at which she was the youngest entrant. Miss Suwanai studied at the Toho Gakuen School of Music with Toshiya Eto and subsequently at Columbia University and the Juilliard School of Music with Dorothy DeLay and Cho-Liang Lin and also as at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin with Uwe-Martin Haiberg.
Akiko Suwanai performs on the Antonio Stradivarius 1714 violin ‘Dolphin’, one of the most famous violins known today and previously owned by the celebrated violinist Jascha Heifetz. The ‘Dolphin’ violin is on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.
