Akiko Suwanai

Japanese violinist Akiko Suwanai is a musician of considerable versatility and breadth of repertoire. Since winning the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1990 she has enjoyed a flourishing career, performing internationally in chamber music and recital and appearing with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors.

She began this season with returns to the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and Duncan Ward and the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Jaime Martín and made her debut with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra and Andrey Boreyko. The season also sees concerts with the Hallé Orchestra and Principal Conductor Kahchun Wong on tour in China, as well as in Manchester and Sheffield; as well as appearances with the Nice Philharmonic and Lionel Bringuier, Lahti Symphony Orchestra and Christian Schumann, Belgian National Orchestra and Antony Hermus and the Macao Orchestra and Lio Kuokman.

She is known for her breadth of repertoire and passion for new music, and in February gave the world premiere of Misato Mochizuki’s Violin Concerto with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra and Mario Venzago. In previous seasons she has premiered Dai Fujikura’s Double Concerto for flute and violin and Peter Eötvös’s Seven. She has also given the Asian premieres of important new violin concertos by Sir James MacMillan, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Krzysztof Penderecki. Other notable performances of new works include Toshio Hosokawa’s Genesis and Guillaume Connesson’s Lost Horizons.

She has an exclusive recording contract and recent additions to her acclaimed discography include Brahms’s Violin Sonatas (2024) and Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (2022).

In 2012 she launched the Nagoya- and Tokyo-based International Music Festival NIPPON, of which she is Artistic Director. This biennial festival presents a variety of guest orchestras and chamber concerts and commissions new works and world premieres by Japanese and international composers. At the festival she has premiered new works such as Karol Beffa’s Violin Concerto and Dai Fujikura’s Pitter-Patter.

Akiko Suwanai performs on the ‘Charles Reade’ Guarneri del Gesù violin (1732), generously loaned to her by Ryuji Ueno, a Japanese-American collector and philanthropist.

Ffidil

Mae’r feiolinydd o Japan, Akiko Suwanai, yn gerddor hynod o amryddawn a chanddi repertoire eang iawn. Ers ennill Cystadleuaeth Ryngwladol Tchaikovsky ym 1990 mae hi wedi cael gyrfa ffyniannus, gan berfformio’n rhyngwladol ym maes cerddoriaeth siambr a datganiadau, ac ymddangos gyda cherddorfeydd ac arweinwyr mwyaf blaenllaw’r byd.

Dechreuodd y tymor hwn trwy ddychwelyd at Gerddorfa Symffoni Lucerne a Duncan Ward, ac at Gerddorfa Gŵyl Budapest a Jaime Martín, a gwnaeth ei hymddangosiad cyntaf gyda Cherddorfa Mozarteum Salzburg ac Andrey Boreyko. Bydd ei chyngherddau’r tymor yma hefyd yn cynnwys perfformio gyda Cherddorfa Hallé a’r Prif Arweinydd Kahchun Wong ar daith yn Tsieina, yn ogystal ag ym Manceinion a Sheffield; a bydd yn ymddangos gyda Cherddorfa Ffilharmonig Nice a Lionel Bringuier, Cerddorfa Symffoni Lahti a Christian Schumann, Cerddorfa Genedlaethol Gwlad Belg ac Antony Hermus, a Cherddorfa Macao a Lio Kuokman.

Mae hi’n enwog am ehangder ei repertoire a’i hangerdd dros gerddoriaeth newydd, ac ym mis Chwefror rhoddodd y première byd o Goncerto Misato Mochizuki i’r Ffidil gyda Cherddorfa Symffoni Yomiuri Nippon a Mario Venzago. Mewn tymhorau a fu mae hi wedi rhoi’r perfformiadau cyntaf erioed o Goncerto Dwbl Dai Fujikura ar gyfer ffliwt a ffidil, a Seven gan Peter Eötvös. Mae hi hefyd wedi rhoi’r premières Asiaidd o goncerti newydd pwysig i’r ffidil gan Syr James MacMillan, Esa-Pekka Salonen a Krzysztof Penderecki. Ymhlith ei pherfformiadau nodedig eraill o weithiau newydd mae Genesis gan Toshio Hosokawa a Lost Horizons gan Guillaume Connesson.

Mae ganddi gontract recordio ecsgliwsif ac ymhlith yr ychwanegiadau diweddar i’w disgograffi mae Sonatas Brahms i’r Ffidil (2024) a Sonatas a Partitas Bach ar gyfer Ffidil Unawdol (2022).

Yn 2012 lansiodd Ŵyl Gerdd Ryngwladol NIPPON yn Nagoya a Tokyo, lle mae’n Gyfarwyddwr Artistig. Dyma ŵyl ddwyflynyddol sy’n cyflwyno amrywiaeth o gerddorfeydd gwadd a chyngherddau siambr ac yn comisiynu gweithiau newydd a premières byd gan gyfansoddwyr o Japan ac yn rhyngwladol. Yn yr ŵyl hon, mae hi wedi rhoi premières o weithiau newydd fel Concerto Karol Beffa i’r Ffidil a Pitter-Patter gan Dai Fujikura.

Mae Akiko Suwanai yn perfformio ar ffidil ‘Charles Reade’ Guarneri del Gesù (1732), a fenthycwyd yn hael iddi gan Ryuji Ueno, casglwr a dyngarwr Japaneaidd-Americanaidd.