Biography

New York-born violinist Akiko Kobayashi is an active solo and chamber musician. She has appeared as a soloist with the West Islip Symphony Orchestra, Yonkers Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Suginami Kokaido Chamber Orchestra, and InterHarmony Festival Orchestra. Her recital appearances include Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in the Young Musicians Concert sponsored by the MTNA League; Steinway Hall in New York; Cathedral of St. John in New York; Bach-Archiv in Leipzig, Germany; Konzertsaal des Rathauses in Bavaria; and the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series at the Chicago Cultural Center, broadcast live on WFMT.

Past projects have included a 3-day Mozart Festival of chamber music, opera arias, and educational outreach at the Allegheny Riverstone Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh; a 6-week exploration of Bach’s 6 Sonatas for Violin and Klavier, examining the spiritual background of the music; and a presentation of 20th century music, its techniques, and its influences, sponsored by the Islip Arts Council in NY.

She has appeared at international festivals such as the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine, the InterHarmony International Music Festival in the Berkshires and the Sulzbach-Rosenberg International Festival in Bavaria, where she performed as both soloaist and chamber musician. She has performed in master classes for the Stradivarius Society, Peter Winograd with the American String Quartet,  Zvi Zeitlin, and Sergiu Schwartz.

Her interests include baroque performance and compositional practices, musicology and analysis. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University and a Master of Music in Classical Violin from the Manhattan School of Music. Her teachers include Victor Aitay, Sidney Harth and Felix Galimir.