The youngest ever winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition, Akiko Suwanai enjoys a prestigious international career performing in concerts and recitals in major cities in Europe, North America and Asia.
In 2013, Suwanai launched the 'International Music Festival NIPPON', and took up the role of its Artistic Director. The first edition of this festival included her performance of Salonen’s Violin Concerto (Japanese and Asian premiere) with the Philharmonia Orchestra, recitals with Leif Ove Andsnes, and chamber music concerts with Pieter Wispelwey and Akira Eguchi, masterclasses as well as charity concerts for Momokai Orphans Fund of the Great East Japan Earthquake. This season’s Festival, in March 2014, sees her give the world premiere of a new work by Eric Tanguy, as well as charity concerts with the Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra and masterclasses. Suwanai is planning a larger-scale edition of the Festival for December 2014.
Suwanai has a broad repertoire ranging from Bach to contemporary composers. Suwanai gave the world premiere of Peter Eötvös' violin concerto Seven at the Lucerne Festival with the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra under the baton of Pierre Boulez. The live recording of this piece with the Gothenburg Symphony will be released by BMC Records in 2013. Suwanai’s extensive discography with Universal Music has garnered much critical acclaim. Her most recent release is a recital disc entitled 'Emotion' with pianist Itamar Golan.
Akiko Suwanai has won numerous prizes and awards including the International Paganini Competition in Italy, the International Japan Competition and the Queen Elisabeth International Competition in Belgium.
She studied at the Toho Gakuen School of Music with Toshiya Eto, at Columbia University and the Juilliard School of Music with Dorothy DeLay and Cho-Liang Lin, and also at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin with Uwe-Martin Haiberg. She now lives in Paris.
Akiko Suwanai performs on the Antonio Stradivarius 1714 violin ‘Dolphin’, one of the most famous violins known today and previously owned by the celebrated violinist Jascha Heifetz, kindly loaned to her by the Nippon Music Foundation.