Anne Akiko Meyers
Anne Akiko Meyers is one of the world’s most esteemed violinists and been described as “a musical wizard, with astonishing access to every kind of expressive color”, (San Diego Union-Tribune)
She regularly performs around the world as soloist with leading orchestras, in recital and is a prolific recording artist with over 40 recordings. A muse and champion of living composers, she recently premiered and performed Fandango by Arturo Márquez with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at The Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Hall and the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City and Blue Electra by Michael Daugherty at The Kennedy Center with Gianandrea Noseda and the National Symphony Orchestra to massive critical and audience acclaim.
Her 2022-23 season includes appearances with the aforesaid Los Angeles, National, Albany, Detroit, Nashville, Princeton, San Diego, San Jose, Tucson, and Wichita Symphony Orchestras. She released her latest recording, Mysterium, of newly imagined violin/choral music by J.S. Bach and Morten Lauridsen, with Grant Gershon and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, in addition to Shining Night , her 40th recording with world premieres and new arrangements by J.S. Bach, Brouwer, Corelli, Ellington, Piazzolla, Ponce, and Lauridsen, with pianist Fabio Bidini and guitarist Jason Vieaux, on Avie Records.
Anne has premiered new music with the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Nashville, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Seattle, Washington D.C., Helsinki, Hyogo, Leipzig, London, Lyon, and New Zealand, among others. She has worked closely with 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), 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.
Anne’s many television appearances include The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Evening At Pops with John Williams, CBS Sunday Morning, Great Performances and Countdown with Keith Olbermann (in a segment that was the third most popular story of that year). John Williams personally chose Anne to perform Schindler’s List for a Great Performances PBS telecast and Arvo Pärt invited her to perform at the opening ceremony concerts of his new centre and concert hall in Estonia. Meyers premiered Samuel Jones’s Violin Concerto with the All-Star Orchestra led by Gerard Schwarz in a nationwide PBS broadcast special and a Naxos DVD release. 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.
Anne has been featured in commercials and advertising campaigns including J.Jill, Northwest Airlines, DDI Japan, and TDK and was the inspiration for the main character’s career path in the novel,The Engagements, written by 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 recently appeared in a documentary about legendary radio personality, Jim Svejda. Outside of traditional classical, 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. She performed the national anthem in front of 42,000 fans at T-Mobile Park in Seattle and at Dodger Stadium and she was profiled in CBS’s “The Good Wife,” 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 was the top-selling traditional classical instrumental soloist of the year in 2014 and the only classical artist for NPR’s 100 best song list in 2017.
Anne was born in San Diego and grew up in Southern California where she and her mother traveled 8 hours roundtrip from the Mojave Desert to Pasadena for lessons with Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld at the Colburn School of Performing Arts. She continued her studies with Josef Gingold at Indiana University and at the invitation of legendary teacher, Dorothy DeLay, moved to New York at the age of 14 to study with her, Felix Galimir, and Masao Kawasaki at The Juilliard School. She has received the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Distinguished Alumna Award from the Colburn School of Music and is a member of the Board of Trustees of The Juilliard School.
Meyers performs on the Ex-Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesù, dated 1741, considered by many to be the finest sounding violin in existence and endorses Larsen Strings.