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©Photo: Marco Borggreve

FOR WEB Akiko Suwanai_007 (c) Marco Borggreve.jpg

©Photo: Marco Borggreve

Akiko Suwanai_020_Aphoto (c) Marco Borggreve

©Photo: Marco Borggreve

Akiko Suwanai_004_Aphoto (c) Marco Borggreve

©Photo: Marco Borggreve

©Photo: Takaki Kumada

Akiko Suwanai

Violin

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“Her big, focused, almost piercing tone took over, carving sonic space, a race car driver weaving in and out of (and even cutting off) traffic”
The Washington Post

Japanese violinist Akiko Suwanai has established herself as one of the most sought-after artists of her generation. Since winning the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1990 she has enjoyed a flourishing career, performing chamber music internationally and engaging at the highest-level with orchestras and conductors.

Suwanai begins the 2024/25 season with a return to National Symphony Orchestra Taiwan/Jun Märkl for Bruch’s Violin Concerto No.1, a concerto she will reprise further ahead in the season with Gürzenich-Orchester Köln/Sakari Oramo on tour in Japan. In other highlights, she joins NHK Symphony Orchestra/Fabio Luisi on tour both in Asia and Europe with performances of Berg’s Violin Concerto and will visit the Swedish Chamber Orchestra/Downey-Dear and Sydney Symphony Orchestra/Dmitry Matvienko to perform Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.5. Known for her breadth of repertoire, Suwanai will perform Hosokawa’s Genesis with Gürzenich-Orchester and visits the St Louis Symphony for Connesson’s Lost Horizons conducted by Stephane Deneve. Another prominent work of the season is Dvořák’s Violin Concerto, which she will perform with both the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen/Paavo Järvi and Singapore Symphony Orchestra/Kahchun Wong.

Akiko Suwanai: Korngold- Violin Concerto (excerpt) © Detroit Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Slatkin

Universally acclaimed for her performances of the core violin repertoire, Suwanai released Brahms:The Sonatas for Violin and Piano and Bach’s Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin with Universal Music in 2024 and 2022, respectively. She is also recognised for her master interpretations of lesser performed works and passion for new music: she has recorded works by Takemitsu with NHK Symphony Orchestra/Järvi and given premieres of Peter Eötvös’ Seven at the Lucerne Festival under Pierre Boulez and in the following year at the BBC Proms conducted by Susanna Mälkki. Suwanai has also given Asian premieres of important new works including violin concertos by James MacMillan, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Krzysztof Penderecki.

In 2012, Akiko launched the Tokyo-based International Music Festival NIPPON as Artistic Director. This bi-annual 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, Akiko has premiered new works including Karol Beffa’s Violin Concerto alongside Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Dai Fujikura’s Pitter-Patter with Boris Berezovsky.

Suwanai performs on theCharles Reade Guarneri del Gesu violin, generously loaned to her by the Japanese-American collector and philanthropist, Dr. Ryuji Ueno.

HarrisonParrott exclusively represents Akiko Suwanai throughout the world except in Japan and Spain.

Akiko Suwanai - Johann Sebastian Bach: Preludio Teaser Video

Akiko Suwanai - Walton: Violin Concerto (excerpt) © Universal Classics

Akiko Suwanai - Sibelius: Violin Concerto (excerpt) © Universal Classics

“her sound was burnished and her phrasing expressive. She easily conquered the devilish challenges of the cadenza while displaying a sense of spontaneity.”

South Florida Classical Review, December 2023

“Suwanai is known for her broad repertoire and extraordinary technical skill, making her a standout even amongst the most talented musicians in the world”

American Songwriter, December 2023

“This time, the two musicians brought Ligeti’s violin concerto, and Bruckner’s Symphony number 6 in A major, the most peculiar of the composer. With both, director, violinist and orchestra dazzled the public and built, as if nothing had happened, a universe of diverse and disparate sounds in which there was even room for ocarinas and flutes to mix with violins, violas and the percussion.”

(Ana Ranera, El Comercio, April 2021)

“Suwanai, with full-throated flourish, took a couple of approaches to the parley. At first, she used a notably flexible sense of tempo to command the dialogue, calling extra attention to notes and phrases; in the finale, her big, focused, almost piercing tone took over, carving sonic space, a racecar driver weaving in and out of (and even cutting off) traffic.”

(Washington Post, February 2020)

“Akiko Suwanai… took the stage for a blockbuster performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto… She drew forth a searing tone from the 1714 Delfino Stradivarius, an instrument matched beautifully to her bold melodic flair.”

(Washington Classical review, February 2020)

“Her reading of the Third Violin Concerto in G major (K216) was as perfect a conception as one hoped possible… Every passage and phrase sounded freshly minted and pristine in clarity…. The slow movement was an epitome of grace, and one wished it not to end.”

(Bachtrack, December 2019)

“The first notes played by Akiko Suwanai impress with magnitude of sound, the depth of dense and dark timbre throughout the registers. The phrasing captivates with exemplary ductility and seduction”

(ClassicToulouse, December 2018)

“Although the work [Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1] suffers from having been played endlessly, it was a wonderful performance. Suwanai has a round, beautiful sound and perfect technique, devoid of unnecessary mannerisms. She did not try to move us “by force” but simply devoted herself completely to the music and let the notes do their work. [….] Truly lovely playing”

(OPUS Magazine, May 2018)

“This superb composition in four parts, which constantly solicits the violin, is played by Akiko Suwanai, who, through her wide sound, ensures its virtuosity and true warmth, in music written with great harmonic knowledge and constant melody.”

(Concerto.net, October 2017)

“Akiko Suwanai may be small in stature, but in no way did this impact on her ability to create a big sound or tackle complex, virtuosic passages. The way she approached the [Korngold’s Violin Concerto] opening with warmth, depth, and beauty, giving it such spine-tingling clarity, made one immediately realise that this was a very impressive soloist.”

(Cut Common Magazine, April 2017)

“Hearing Akiko Suwanai play Mendelssohn’s E minor Violin Concerto made one realize that this wonderful work’s virtues are often taken for granted – the skilfully contrived transitions and the precise balance between lyricism and dynamism. Suwani’s lithe playing, refulgent tone and impeccable taste ensured that those qualities received their due.”

(Norman Stinchcombe, Birmingham Post, October 2016)

“Unfailingly assured and polished”

(Peter Dobrin, Philly.com, April 2016)

“…It was her sheer warmth and communicative skills that made the difference. In the Larghetto Suwanai again let the music breath unhurriedly: there was an improvisational quality in her playing, a gentle poetry that was most moving. In the finale she brought a joyous quality to the triple rhythm: in her hands the music had a dance-like nature.”

(Alan Sanders, Seen and Heard International, February 2016)

“Akiko Suwanai is, moreover, a superb soloist in the Violin Concerto. She plays with a swirling virtuosity which, in a perfectly natural way, works alongside the objective harshness of the work, and you can hear the free-spirited thinking described by Carl Nielsen as the glorious boundaries of our freewill. “It demands you to listen, look, think, be silent, weigh and choose.”

(Magnus Haglund, Göteborgs-Posten, June 2015)

“The poco adagio was sublime… Her Nielsen was pure virtuosity (oh, the cadenzas!)… Suwanai has reached the top level of artistry and here in Asturias we have been lucky enough to witness her ascent during these past six years.”

(Diana Diaz, La Nueva Espana, April 2015

“The orchestra seemed to wrap itself around soloist Akiko Suwanai, a wonderful player who seemed rather more wonderful with the Philadelphians framing her.”

(David Patrick Stearns, Philly.com, May 2014)