Anne Akiko Meyers

Anne Akiko Meyers, one of the world’s most esteemed musicians, is a GRAMMY® Award winning violinist, recognized as a muse and champion of  many of today’s most important composers. Since her teens, Anne has performed  around the world as soloist with leading orchestras, in recital and recorded more  than 40 releases, which have become staples of classical music radio and streaming  platforms.

Anne has been called “the Wonder Woman of commissioning” by The Strad and  worked closely with some of the most important composers of the last half century,  including Arvo Pärt (Estonian Lullaby), Einojuhani Rautavaara (Fantasia, his final complete work), John Corigliano (cadenzas for the Beethoven Violin  Concerto; Lullaby for Natalie), Arturo Márquez (Fandango), Philip Glass (New  Chaconne), Michael Daugherty (Blue Electra), Mason Bates and Adam  Schoenberg (violin concertos), Billy Childs, Jakub Ciupiński, Jennifer Higdon, Morten Lauridsen, Wynton Marsalis, Somei Satoh,  Joseph Schwantner, and Eric Whitacre (THE PACIFIC HAS NO MEMORY, Seal Lullaby) performing world premieres with the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Nashville, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Seattle, Washington, D.C.,  Helsinki, Hyogo, Leipzig, London, Lyon, and New Zealand.

Anne’s recording of Fandango, a live performance with Gustavo Dudamel and the  LA Philharmonic, received two Latin GRAMMY® Awards: Best Classical Album  and Best Contemporary Composition. Fandango was premiered in 2021 at The  Hollywood Bowl, and has been performed over 40 times with 16 different  orchestras around the world since.

In the 2024-25 season, Anne will premiere Eric Whitacre’s, THE PACIFIC HAS NO MEMORY, with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and performs with the Cincinnati Symphony, Grant Park Music Festival, Sarasota Symphony,  Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, and Vancouver Symphony.

Naxos will release Blue Electra, Michael Daugherty’s Violin Concerto inspired by  Amelia Earhart, commissioned by Anne, and recorded with David Alan Miller and the Albany Symphony in April 25′. Platoon releases Beloved, a requiem by Billy Childs, alongside works by Ola  Gjeilo and Eric Whitacre, with Grant Gershon and the Los Angeles Master Chorale  in May 25′ for Mother’s Day and the Philip Glass Violin Concerto No. 1 with  Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New Chaconne, a new work written by Philip for Anne, and Echorus with Aubree Oliverson and the Colburn  Academy Virtuosi, to be released for Father’s Day, June 25′.

Highlights from Anne’s 2023-24 season included performances of the Philip Glass  Violin Concerto No.1 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl  and the Prague Philharmonia; the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Royal  Philharmonic Orchestra on its U.S. tour; the world premiere of Billy Childs’s  requiem In The Arms of the Beloved, with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, a  popular appearance on NPR’s Tiny Desk series, and Artistic Director at the Laguna  Beach Music Festival, where she performed several world premieres including New Chaconne, a new work Philip Glass composed for her.

Recent highlights included appearances with the L.A. Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel in Los Angeles, and on tour marking the L.A. Phil’s return to Carnegie Hall in over 32 years and at the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City. In  2022, Anne premiered Blue Electra, a new violin concerto by Michael Daugherty, which received  massive critical acclaim at The Kennedy Center with Gianandrea Noseda and the  National Symphony Orchestra.

The violinist’s first national television appearances were on The Tonight Showwith  Johnny Carson, at age 11, followed by performances that include Evening At  Pops with John Williams, CBS Sunday Morning, Great Performances, Countdown  with Keith Olbermann (in a segment that was the third most popular story of that  year), The Emmy Awards, and The View. John Williams chose Anne to perform the  theme from Schindler’s List for a Great Performances PBS telecast, and Arvo  Pärt invited her to be his guest soloist at the opening ceremony concerts of his new  center and concert hall in Estonia.

Krzysztof Penderecki selected Anne to perform the Beethoven Violin Concerto at  the 40th Pablo Casals Festival with the Montreal Symphony, which was broadcast  on A&E. Her recording of Somei Satoh’s Birds in Warped Time II was used by  architect Michael Arad for his award-winning design submission, which today has  become The World Trade Center Memorial in lower Manhattan.

Other career highlights include a performance of the Barber Violin Concerto at the  Australian Bicentennial Concert for an audience of 750,000 in Sydney Harbour;  performances for the Emperor and Empress Akihito of Japan; for Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, in a Museumplein Concert with the Royal Concertgebouw  Orchestra; and “The Star-Spangled Banner” at T-Mobile Park in Seattle  and Dodger Stadium. She was profiled on NPR’s Morning Edition with Linda  Wertheimer and All Things Considered with Robert Siegel, and she curated  “Living American” on Sirius XM Radio’s Symphony Hall.

Anne has been featured in commercials and advertising campaigns including Anne  Klein, shot by legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz; Northwest Airlines; DDI  Japan; and TDK; and was the inspiration for the main character’s career path in the  novel The Engagements, by the popular author J. Courtney Sullivan. She  collaborated with children’s book author and illustrator Kristine Papillon  on Crumpet the Trumpet, appearing as the character Violetta the violinist, and  featured in a documentary about legendary radio personality Jim Svejda.

Anne has collaborated with a diverse array of artists including jazz icons Chris  Botti and Wynton Marsalis; avant-garde musician Ryuichi Sakamoto; electronic  music pioneer Isao Tomita; pop-era act Il Divo; and singer, Michael Bolton.

Anne was born in San Diego and grew up in Southern California, where she and  her mother traveled eight hours, round trip, from the Mojave Desert to Pasadena  for lessons with Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld at the predecessor of the Colburn School of Performing Arts. Anne moved to New York at the age of 14 to study at  The Juilliard School with the legendary violin instructor Dorothy DeLay, and with  Masao Kawasaki and Felix Galimir; she signed with management at 16; and  recorded her debut album of the Barber and Bruch Violin Concertos with the RPO at Abbey Road Studios at 18.

She has received the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Distinguished Alumna Award,  and an Honorary Doctorate from The Colburn School. She serves on the Board of  Trustees of The Juilliard School and was recently honored by the Orpheus  Chamber Orchestra and inducted into the Asian Hall of Fame.

Anne performs on Larsen Strings with the Ex-Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesù,  dated 1741, considered by many to be the finest-sounding violin in existence.