Anne Akiko Meyers: Difference between revisions
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Her newest album, 'Smile', was released on [[Koch Records]] with Akira Eguchi, featuring pieces by [[Harold Arlen]], [[Charlie Chaplin]], [[Olivier Messiaen]], [[Michio Miyagi]], [[Arvo Pärt]], [[Piazzolla]], [[Schubert]], and [[Rentaro Taki]]. |
Her newest album, 'Smile', was released on [[Koch Records]] with Akira Eguchi, featuring pieces by [[Harold Arlen]], [[Charlie Chaplin]], [[Olivier Messiaen]], [[Michio Miyagi]], [[Arvo Pärt]], [[Piazzolla]], [[Schubert]], and [[Rentaro Taki]]. |
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<ref>http://www.kochentertainment.com/artists/detail/?Artist=Anne+Akiko+Meyers</ref> |
<ref>http://www.kochentertainment.com/artists/detail/?Artist=Anne+Akiko+Meyers</ref> |
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In the fall of 2010, 'The Seasons, Dreams' will be released and feature works by [[Beethoven]], [[Wagner]], [[Schnittke]], [[Debussy]], [[Vernon Duke]] with a pianist and harpist on Koch/E1 Entertainment. |
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In December, Meyers was the special guest violinist as part of [[Il Divo]]'s Christmas Tour 2009 <ref>http://forums.ildivo.com/index.php?showtopic=34537&st=20</ref> |
In December, Meyers was the special guest violinist as part of [[Il Divo]]'s Christmas Tour 2009 <ref>http://forums.ildivo.com/index.php?showtopic=34537&st=20</ref> |
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Revision as of 14:42, 12 January 2010
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Anne Akiko Meyers |
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Anne Akiko Meyers (born May 15, 1970 in San Diego, California) is celebrated as one of the world's premiere concert violinists known today. Known as an incredibly diverse artist, Meyers has toured and collaborated with the world's most prominent symphony orchestras and Il Divo, Chris Botti and Wynton Marsalis. Listen Magazine described Meyers as a ‘trailblazing violinist’, one who is constantly ‘charting her own course’. [1] The New York Times is quoted as saying Meyers’ performances is ‘playing that flows from the heart’, ‘unspooled with impressive refinement, emotional freedom and tonal depth …. molding her phrases like a singer’.[2]
Meyers performs on the 'Royal Spanish' [3]Stradivarius violin, made in Cremona in 1730 and which was once owned by the King of Spain.
Background
Meyers was born in San Diego, California to an American father, who is president of the Fielding Graduate University[4], and Japanese mother from Tokyo. 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, CA. 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. She has been interviewed saying that, as a child, she practiced her violin in the front seat of her family's VW Beetle as her mother drove more than three hours on the round trip to her violin lessons.
Early career
Meyers began studying the violin at age 4 and debuted with an orchestra at age 7. She was featured twice on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and the Emmy Award Show at the age of 11. She also performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and made her debut with the New York Philharmonic at age 12, with Zubin Mehta conducting. At the age of 16 she signed with ICM Artists and began touring and recording. Her first album in London was at the Abbey Road Studios featuring the Barber and Bruch Concertos with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 18. Having signed an exclusive RCA Red Seal contract at 21 years of age, she went on to record a comprehensive discography. At 23, she was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, the only artist to be the sole recipient of this annual award.
Professional works
Meyers has been a regular guest at some of the most prestigious 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.
An avid 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, #3 which she premiered with the Utah Symphony.[5]
Meyers has recorded an extensive collection of music on the Avie Records, Camerata, Hyperion Records, Naxos Records, RCA Red Seal Records, RPO labels and Warner Classics Japan. Her debut disc, recorded at the age of 18, included the Samuel Barber "Violin Concerto" and the Max Bruch "Violin Concerto No.1" with Christopher Seaman and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. RPO Records recorded the sonatas of Saint-Saëns and Fauré. Her RCA catalogue is comprehensive and includes Lalo's "Symphonie Espagnole" and Bruch's "Scottish Fantasy" with Jesus Lopez-Cobos and the Royal Philharmonic; the Franck and Strauss sonatas; the Felix Mendelssohn "Concerto in E minor" 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 an album featuring works by Copland, Ives, Piston, and David Baker with pianist André-Michel Schub.
She recorded works by Debussy, Messiaen, Ravel, Satoh and Takemitsu for Avie Records. 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 on the Camerata label and 'Angelfire’ by Pulitzer-prize winning composer Joseph Schwantner with Andrew Litton and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra on Hyperion Records[6]. 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 Kanawaza with Maestro Iwaki on Warner Classics Japan.
Her newest album, 'Smile', was released on Koch Records with Akira Eguchi, featuring pieces by Harold Arlen, Charlie Chaplin, Olivier Messiaen, Michio Miyagi, Arvo Pärt, Piazzolla, Schubert, and Rentaro Taki. [7] In the fall of 2010, 'The Seasons, Dreams' will be released and feature works by Beethoven, Wagner, Schnittke, Debussy, Vernon Duke with a pianist and harpist on Koch/E1 Entertainment.
In December, Meyers was the special guest violinist as part of Il Divo's Christmas Tour 2009 [8]
Discography
2009 Smile, Koch Records (2008) Arlen, Chaplin, Miyagi, Pärt, Piazzolla, Messiaen, Schubert, Taki
2006 Jennifer Higdon Piano Trio (2003), Naxos Records
2006 Max Bruch Violin Concerto No.1 in g minor Live from Japan, Warner Classics
2006 ‘Angelfire’ (2001) Joseph Schwantner ‘Fantasy’ for amplified violin and orchestra (Written for Ms. Meyers), Hyperion
2004 ‘Kisetsu’ (2002) Somei Satoh Violin Concerto (Written for Ms. Meyers), Camerata Records
2004 'East Meets West' (Japanese/French Album), Avie Records
2003 ‘Smooth Classics’, ClassicFM Records
2001 ‘Romantic Violin’ RCA/BMG
2000 ‘Violin for Relaxation’ RCA/BMG
1999 ‘UltraSound’ Music for the Unborn Child, RCA/BMG
1997 'Sergei Prokofiev Album' with the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra/Kitajenko, RCA Red Seal
1997 'Franz Schubert', NPR Records
1996 'American Album', RCA Red Seal
1996 ‘Classical Ecstasy’, RCA Red Seal
1995 ‘French Orchestral Works’, RCA
1994 ‘Salut d’Amour’, RCA Red Seal
1993 Felix Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and other works with the Philharmonia Orchestra & Andrew Litton, RCA Red Seal
1993 Cesar Franck and Richard Strauss Sonatas, RCA Red Seal
1992 Max Bruch and Edouard Lalo Album with the RPO and Jesus Lopez-Cobos, RCA Red Seal
1989 Gabriel Fauré & Camille Saint-Saëns Album, Canyon Classics
1988 Debut Disc-Samuel Barber/Max Bruch Concertos with the RPO and Christopher Seaman, Canyon Classics
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 that attracted an audience of 10,000 and was globally broadcast live on the Internet. She also performed in front of 750,000 people in Sydney, Australia's Harbour, celebrating their 250th Bicentennial.
She has been featured in numerous print and television commercials (DDI,TDK,BS-1,Northwest Airlines) including being selected to be photographed by Annie Leibovitz for the Anne Klein "Women of Substance" fashion campaign that appeared in publications around the world.
Teaching
Meyers was a panelist, recitalist and teacher at theJuilliard School's Starling-DeLay Symposium in 2006 and in May, 2008 was invited by UCLA as Regent's Lecturer in violin. This marked the first time in UCLA history to bestow this honor on a violinist.
In the fall of 2009, Meyers joined the Butler School of Music at University of Texas at Austin as Distinguished Artist and Professor of Violin. [9]
References
- ^ http://http://www.anneakikomeyers.com/pdf/MeyersProfileListenMay09.pdf
- ^ http://www.violinist.com/blog/laurie/20092/9755/
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Stradivarius_instruments
- ^ http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS255884+09-Feb-2009+PRN20090209
- ^ http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705320917/Symphony-guest-conductor-impressive.htm
- ^ http://http://www.anneakikomeyers.com/pdf/Muso.pdf
- ^ http://www.kochentertainment.com/artists/detail/?Artist=Anne+Akiko+Meyers
- ^ http://forums.ildivo.com/index.php?showtopic=34537&st=20
- ^ http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/seeingthings/entries/2009/06/25/ut_butler_school_of_music.html?cxntfid=blogs_austin_arts_seeing_things