Anne Akiko Meyers
Anne Akiko Meyers (born May 1970) is a classical violinist.
Meyers has been a regular guest at some of the most prestigious orchestras and venues including Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, Tanglewood, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony, London's Philharmonia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, l'Orchestre de Paris, Minnesota Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo's NHK Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. An avid supporter of contemporary composers, she has premiered works by David Baker, John Corigliano, Nathan Currier, Roddy Ellias, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Jennifer Higdon, Arvo Part, Manuel Maria Ponce, Somei Satoh, Teddy Shapiro, Joseph Schwantner, and Ezequiel Viñao.
Background
Meyers was born in 1970 in California in the United States, daughter of Yakko and Richard Meyers. Her father, then president of Pasadena City College, is currently president of Webster University near St. Louis, Missouri. She has a younger sister who plays the piano but is an ophthalmologist with a subspecialty in glaucoma. During her early years, her mother, Yakko, drove Anne long distances to various performances and often saw their Audi car break down in remote areas as she mentioned during an interview in 1991.
Early career
At the age of 11, she was featured, twice, on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. At 15, she joined the Young Concert Artists roster. At 23, she was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, the only artist to be the sole recipient of this annual award. Today she performs around the globe as a featured soloist with the most recognized names in classical music and has performed for dignitaries including the Emperor and Empress of Japan.
Meyers studied with Alice Schoenfeld and Eleanore Schoenfeld at the Colburn School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles, Josef Gingold at Indiana University, and Felix Galimir, Masao Kawasaki and the late Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School. She performs on the “Royal Spanish” Antonius Stradivarius violin, dated 1730, that once belonged to the King of Spain and owns a violin made by Bill Townsend. She endorses Thomastik-Infeld Vision Titanium strings, who is featuring her in their most recent advertising campaign.
Professional works
Meyers has recorded and published an extensive collection of music which can be found on the Avie, Camerata, Hyperion, Naxos, RCA Red Seal Records and RPO labels. 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" 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 recently recorded works by Debussy, Messiaen, Ravel, Satoh and Takemitsu for the AVIE label. Two works written expressly for Meyers include a live performance of the Somei Satoh Violin Concerto with Tetsuji Honna and the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra on the Camerata label and 'Angelfire’ by Pulitzer-prize winning composer Joseph Schwantner with Andrew Litton and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra on Hyperion. Naxos also released a performance of Jennifer Higdon's piano trio, featuring Meyers, live from the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival.
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 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.