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 worldwide and engaging at the highest-level with orchestras and conductors internationally.

Suwanai begins the 2023/24 season with Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra playing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto conducted by Tabita Berglund, a concerto she will reprise later this year for Palm Beach Symphony. Known for her breadth of repertoire, other season highlights include a recording of Vaughan-Williams’ The Lark Ascending with Antwerp Symphony Orchestra alongside conductor and close collaborator, Jun Märkl, returning to Toshio Hosokawa’s music, to play Genesis as part of the Gaida Festival, and joining Festival Strings Lucerne at the Hong Kong Arts Festival for Vieuxtemps Violin Concerto No.5

Another prominent feature of the season is a return to the violin concertos of Mozart with a range of leading orchestras and for performances of the complete concertos at the Tokyo based International Music Festival Nippon, of which she has been Artistic Director since 2012.

As well as notable concerto appearances, Suwanai will give significant recital tours with pianist, Evgeni Bozhanov performing Brahms’ three Sonatas for Violin and Piano, which will become the focus of her next release for Universal Music in Spring 2024. The tours will take in China including dates in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai and six-dates across Japan with performances in Sapporo, Hiroshima, and Nagano.

Highlights in previous seasons included performances with BBC Symphony Orchestra/Bringuier, Rotterdam Philharmonic/Shani, Duisburg Philharmoniker/Bellincampi and Hong Kong Philharmonic/Jaap van Zweden. With the Nippon Festival in previous seasons, she has premiered new works including Karol Beffa’s A Floating World alongside The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Dai Fujikura’s Pitter-Patter with Boris Berezovsky.

Suwanai has long standing relationships with Martha Argerich and took part in her birthday celebrations in summer 2021 and in previous seasons has performed at the prestigious Rosendal and Stresa Festivals. Also a regular recitalist, the 2022/23 season included performances with Ilya Rashkovsky in Taiwan, Tomoki Sakata in Japan, and Bozhanov in Duisburg.

Universally acclaimed for her performances of the core violin repertoire, Suwanai released the Complete Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin by Bach for Universal in 2022, followed by a solo recital tour across Japan including concerts in Tokyo and Nagoya. She is recognised for her master interpretations of lesser performed works and passion for new music and in previous seasons has recorded works by Takemitsu with the NHK Symphony Orchestra/​Järvi, 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 premiers of important new works including violin concertos by James MacMillan, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Krzysztof Penderecki.

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

Paul Meyer is not only one of the outstanding clarinetists worldwide and performs regularly with the major orchestras in Europe and the USA, in the Far East and Australia, since 1988 he has also worked internationally as a conductor alongside his solo career. He is the founder of the Orchester de Chambre d'Alsace, was assistant to John Crewe at the Northern Junior Philharmonic in England and was appointed Associate Chief Conductor of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra by Myung Whun Chung in 2007, whose international profile he has above all with a French repertoire and works by Roussel, Dukas and Saint-Saëns. Paul Meyer is a co-founder of the orchestra academy there for young artists. From 2009 to 2012, Paul Meyer was chief conductor of the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra and has since worked with well-known orchestras such as the Orchester Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchester Philharmonique de Nice, l'Orchestre National de Bordeaux, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Danish Symphony Orchestra or the China Philharmonic, his artistic work to date is on more than 50 CDs Documented recordings with leading labels, including DGG, Sony, RCA, EMI and Virgin; for this he was awarded numerous prizes such as Fono-Forum, Diapason d'Or, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Gramophon and Grammy Awards. His recordings as a conductor with the Camerata Padova (piano concerts by Mozart and Haydn with JM Luisada), with the Royal Philharmonique de Liège (works by Darius Milhaud) and the Brussels Philharmonic (works by Corigliano & Carter), with the Staatskapelle Weimar (cello concert by Elgar & Walton) as well as horn concerts from different epochs with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and the highly successful CD "Bolero de Meyer" with the Tokyo Kosei Orchestra. His series of Play & Conduct recordings with the Orchester de Chambre de Lausanne has won awards.
In the series of chamber orchestras previously conducted by Paul Meyer, only the following are mentioned: Orchester de Chambre de Paris, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Stockholm Cham-ber Orchestra, Prague Philharmonia, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and the Munich chamber Orchestra.
In 2012, the French state Paul Meyer awarded the highest cultural award of the "Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" for its musical achievements to date.
In autumn 2018, Paul Meyer was unanimously elected to succeed Johannes Schlaefli as the new chief conductor of the Chamber Orchestra Mannheim, in whose hands the artistic development of the traditional orchestra will lie from the 2019/2020 season.