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), Jakub Ciupiński, Jennifer Higdon, Samuel Jones, Morten Lauridsen, Wynton Marsalis, Akira Miyoshi, Gene Pritsker, Somei Satoh, and Joseph Schwantner, 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 already been performed dozens of times around the world.

In the 2024-25 season, Anne performs with the Cincinnati Symphony, Grant Park Music Festival, Sarasota Symphony, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería in Mexico City and Vancouver Symphony. She will premiere Murmur, by Eric Whitacre, with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

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 Show with 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. In October 2024, Anne was inducted into the Asian Hall of Fame, honoring leading members of the Asian community across a wide array of disciplines.

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.