Anne Akiko Meyers

Anne Akiko Meyers

Anne Akiko Meyers (born May 15, 1970 in San Diego, California) is an American concert violinist. Meyers has toured and collaborated with a number of symphony orchestras and Michael Bolton, Il Divo, Chris Botti and Wynton Marsalis. Meyers tours with a 1730 Stradivarius violin called the 'Royal Spanish'. She is also the owner of a 1697 Stradivarius called the 'Molitor', which is purported to have been owned by Napoleon Bonaparte. She purchased the 'Molitor' from Tarisio Auctions on October 14, 2010 for US$3,600,000, the highest recorded price for any musical instrument in history.

Background

Meyers was born in San Diego, California. Raised in Southern California she studied with Shirley Helmick, and then went on to study with Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld at the Colburn School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles, California. She then proceeded to study with Josef Gingold at Indiana University and Dorothy DeLay, Felix Galimir and Masao Kawasaki at the Juilliard School in New York City. Combining her junior and senior high school years and graduating early from the Juilliard School at the age of 20, she was touring the world and recorded exclusively for RCA Red Seal.

Early career

Meyers began studying the violin from the age of four, and when she was seven, debuted with an orchestra. At the age of 11, she was featured twice on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and the Emmy Award Show. She also performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and, at the age of twelve, debuted with the New York Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta conducting. When she was sixteen, she signed with ICM Artists and began touring and recording. At the age of eighteen, she recorded her first album in London at the Abbey Road Studios, featuring the Barber and Bruch Concertos with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Having signed an exclusive RCA Red Seal contract at the age of 21, she went on to record a comprehensive discography. At the age of 23, she was the sole recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Professional works

Meyers has been a regular guest at venues including Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, Lincoln Center, Suntory Hall, Sydney Opera House and a soloist with orchestras such as BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Budapest Festival Orchestra, London's Philharmonia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Minnesota Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo's NHK Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Vienna Symphony and the Warsaw Philharmonic.

A supporter of contemporary composers, she has premiered works by David Baker, John Corigliano, Nathan Currier, Roddy Ellias, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Jennifer Higdon, Wynton Marsalis, Olivier Messiaen, Akira Miyoshi, Arvo Pärt, Manuel Maria Ponce, Somei Satoh, Teddy Shapiro, Joseph Schwantner, and Ezequiel Viñao. Recently, Meyers asked jazz legend Wynton Marsalis to write cadenzas for her in Mozart's Violin Concerto in G Major, No.3 which she premiered with the Utah Symphony Orchestra.

Meyers has recorded music on numerous labels. Her debut disc, recorded at the age of 18, included the Violin Concerto (Barber) and the Violin Concerto No. 1 (Bruch) with Christopher Seaman and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. RPO Records recorded the sonatas of Saint-Saëns and Fauré. Her RCA catalogue includes Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole and Bruch's Scottish Fantasy with Jesús López-Cobos and the Royal Philharmonic; the Franck and Strauss Sonatas; the Violin Concerto (Mendelssohn) and a selection of other works with Andrew Litton and the Philharmonia Orchestra; and Prokofiev Violin Concertos with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony under Dmitri Kitajenko. Sonata albums include "Salut d'Amour" featuring many encore pieces with classic Japanese folksongs and one featuring works by Copland, Ives, Piston, and David Baker with pianist Andre-Michel Schub.

She recorded works by Debussy, Messiaen, Ravel, Somei Satoh, and Tōru Takemitsu. Two works written expressly for Meyers include a live performance of the Somei Satoh Violin Concerto with Tetsuji Honna and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and Angelfire'’ by Pulitzer-prize winning composer Joseph Schwantner with Andrew Litton and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Naxos Records also released a performance of Jennifer Higdon's piano trio, featuring Meyers, live from the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival; and she recorded the Bruch Concerto live with the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa with Maestro Hiroyuki Iwaki.

Smile was released in 2009 with Akira Eguchi. It features pieces by Harold Arlen, Charlie Chaplin, Olivier Messiaen, Michio Miyagi, Arvo Pärt, Piazzolla, Schubert, and Rentaro Taki.

In September 2010, Seasons...dreams was released, featuring works by Beethoven, Wagner, Schnittke, Debussy, and Vernon Duke, with pianist Reiko Uchida and harpist Emmanuel Ceysson.

Meyers was the special guest violinist as part of Il Divo's Christmas Tour 2009 and toured with Chris Botti in 2010.

Meyers also recorded 'Pride, In the Name of Love' with singer, Michael Bolton [1]]</ref>. This will be released on his new album, 'Gems' in June, 2011.

Discography

• Samuel Barber/Max Bruch Concertos (1988) with the RPO and Christopher Seaman
• Gabriel Fauré & Camille Saint-Saëns Album (1989)
• Max Bruch and Édouard Lalo Album (1992) with the RPO and Jesus Lopez-Cobos"Gems" With Michael Bolton (2011)
• César Franck and Richard Strauss Sonatas (1993)
• Felix Mendelssohn (1993) Violin Concerto and other works with the Philharmonia Orchestra & Andrew Litton
• Salut d'Amour (1994)
• French Orchestral Works (1995)
• Classical Ecstasy (1996)
• American Album (1996)
• Franz Schubert (1997)
• Sergei Prokofiev Album (1997) with the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra/Kitajenko
• UltraSound Music for the Unborn Child (19990
• Violin for Relaxation (2000)
• Romantic Violin (2001)
• Smooth Classics (2003)
• East Meets West (2004) (Japanese/French album)
• Kisetsu (2002) Somei Satoh Violin Concerto (Written for Ms. Meyers)
• Angelfire (2001) Joseph Schwantner ‘Fantasy’ for amplified violin and orchestra (Written for Ms. Meyers)
• Jennifer Higdon Piano Trio (2003)
• Max Bruch Violin Concerto No.1 in g minor Live from Japan (2006)
• Smile (2008)
• Seasons...dreams (2009)
• "Gems" (2011) "Pride, In the Name of Love" with singer, Michael Bolton

Television and advertising credits

Meyers' television credits include an A&E Networks telecast from the Casals Festival with the Montreal Symphony and Krzysztof Penderecki, a PBS broadcast with the Boston Pops Orchestra and John Williams and her appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and the "Emmy Award Show" attracted national attention. She was also featured performing with Keith Lockhart and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Holland. She also performed in front of 750,000 people in Sydney, Australia's Harbour, celebrating their 250th Bicentennial.

Teaching

Meyers was a panelist, recitalist and teacher at the Juilliard School's Starling-DeLay Symposium in 2006 and in May, 2008 was invited by UCLA as Regent's Lecturer in violin.

In late 2009, Meyers joined the Butler School of Music at University of Texas at Austin as Distinguished Artist and Professor of Violin.

External links

• Official website
• Official Facebook page
• Myspace page
• Management agency profile

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