Akiko Suwanai

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Akiko Suwanai
諏訪内 晶子
Born (1972-02-07) February 7, 1972 (age 53)
OriginTokyo, Japan
GenresClassical
OccupationViolinist
InstrumentViolin
Years active1990 – Present
LabelsDecca Records
Websiteakiko-suwanai

Akiko Suwanai (諏訪内 晶子, Suwanai Akiko; born February 7, 1972) is a Japanese classical violinist.

At the age of 18, she became the youngest winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1990. In addition, she was awarded second prize in the Paganini Competition in 1988 and Queen Elisabeth Competition in 1989 and is a laureate of the Music Competition of Japan.

She has studied with Toshiya Eto at the Toho Gakuen School of Music, with Dorothy DeLay and Cho-Liang Lin at the Juilliard School of Music while at Columbia University, and with Uwe-Martin Haiberg at the Universität der Künste Berlin.[1]

Until 2019 she played the 1714 Dolphin Stradivarius, on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation. After it was returned she received the "Charles Reade" Guarneri del Gesù on loan from Japanese collector Ryuji Ueno.[2]

Early life and career

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Suwanai was born in Tokyo, Japan. At the age of 2 and a half, she showed an interest in sound, so her parents took her to a nearby violin class, where she first encountered the instrument. She began learning the violin at age 3, starting with weekly lessons. From age 4, her lessons increased to twice a week, where she remembered looking forward to each one. On summer break of her first year in elementary school, her family moved to Machida City, west of Tokyo where she started attending a music school from the second grade. In 1979, Suwanai entered the private Toho Gakuen School of Music’s affiliated ‘Music Class for Children’, a specialised and competitive program across Japan for gifted students. During her childhood, due to her father’s job transfer, she relocated to Nagoya for a period where she studied and was tutored under Shinji Nishizaki, the father of violinist Takako Nishizaki. When she was 14, she studied under the violinist Toshiya Eto. During her middle school years, she won the Japan Student Music Competition (Middle School Division).[3][4][5][6]

Discography

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References

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Decca Music Group's Biography for Akiko Suwanai
[1] Akiko Suwanai Official website (in Japanese)

  1. ^ "Biography". Retrieved August 17, 2009.
  2. ^ Channel, The Violin (October 23, 2020). "Akiko Suwanai Receives Guarneri del Gesu Violin". The World's Leading Classical Music News Source. Est 2009. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
  3. ^ "バイオリニスト 諏訪内晶子(1) 3歳で手にしたバイオリン". 日本経済新聞 (in Japanese). November 4, 2014. Retrieved July 21, 2025.
  4. ^ "人を励ます音色を バイオリニスト大谷康子が自伝出版". 日本経済新聞 (in Japanese). August 11, 2018. Retrieved July 21, 2025.
  5. ^ "音楽との出会い 「ヴァイオリニストとして」 諏訪内 晶子 さん｜子育て・体験記｜海外教育情報サイトSPRING（シンガポール）". springmagazine (in Japanese). Retrieved July 21, 2025.
  6. ^ "諏訪内 晶子(ヴァイオリン) | クラッシック音楽情報サイト". kousin242.sakura.ne.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved July 21, 2025.
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