The Strad: Anne Akiko Meyers on traditional Japanese songs

The Strad
Interview by Christian Lloyd

A brace of traditional songs from Japan bring back fond memories and inspire a wealth of interpretations for the American violinist.

“My grandmother’s favourite piece of music in the world was a Japanese song called Kōjō no Tsuki. I first heard it when I was a teenager and I understood straight away why she loved it so much; it’s a hauntingly beautiful, nostalgic piece that has an infinite amount of soulfulness and poetry within it.

I’ve always associated it with memories of my grandmother; when she heard me playing it in the house, or in my hotel room while I was touring, it would always move her to tears – and when I hear it now I find it very hard not to cry as well.”

Read more of the interview here.

San Francisco Chronicle Datebook: Anne Akiko Meyers at California Theatre

San Francisco Chronicle
Joshua Kosman

Anne Akiko Meyers joins the Symphony Silicon Valley
March 2-3, 2019
California Theatre, San Jose, CA

Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto is one of those artistic creations for which the backstory is almost as interesting as the music itself. It’s a tangled tale of disputes among the composer, the intended soloist and the soap magnate who commissioned it, in which charges and countercharges flew.

If the truth behind the dispute is murky, the results are clear enough. This is a concerto in which the first two movements hew close to Barber’s familiar style – a blend of ingratiating lyricism and formal sturdiness – before a virtuoso finale comes on with an entirely different musical demeanor.

If anyone can make the parts cohere, it’s the brilliant and resourceful violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, who joins conductor Tito Muñoz and the Symphony Silicon Valley as soloist. Also on the program is a new work by the young American composer Adam Schoenberg, along with Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. 

More details here.

J. Jill Rhythm in Blues Campaign

J.Jill

INSPIRED WOMEN

More and more women are breaking barriers in all aspects of the music industry. We’ve brought together an eclectic group of artists—the trailblazers, the firsts, the remarkable and revered to learn what they love about music and being on stage (or backstage or behind the lens), what inspires their day to day, and what they won’t go on tour without.

ANNE AKIKO MEYERS, CONCERT VIOLINIST

Anne’s 37th acclaimed album, Mirror in Mirror was recently released. She performs exclusively on the legendary Ex-Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesu, dated 1741, considered by many to be the finest violin in existence. Visit anneakikomeyers.com for upcoming performance dates and information.

OLGA KERN, CONCERT PIANIST + CLIBURN GOLD MEDAL WINNER

See Olga Kern perform this month in Illinois, California and New Mexico. For more details on her tour and career, visit olgakern.com.

PATRICIA PRICE, MUSIC CONSULTANT
To learn more about Patricia’s work, clients and projects, visit 8vamusicconsultancy.com.

WQXR Presents "19 for 19": Artists to Watch in the Upcoming Year

WQXR

Contrary to the misguided and musty reputation often bestowed upon classical music, this art form is very much alive — and in the hands of many talented and creative musicians ushering it forward. That’s why WQXR is kicking off 2019 by introducing “19 for 19,” a group of artists we love that includes long-time heroes, established favorites and newcomers set for stardom. We’re planning all sorts of exciting collaborations across our platforms throughout the year, so stay tuned. Get to know them here, and if you haven’t yet heard what they can do, now’s the time.

Anne Akiko Meyers, violinist

Meyers has been busy on the international professional scene since she was 10 years old. She has a host of honors to her name, but is not one to rest on her laurels. Her 2019 is another year filled with premieres, outreach initiatives and new collaborations. Having given the world premiere in 2015 of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s final work, Fantasia, Meyers resurrects it for its Asian premiere in Japan. In the spring, she heads to London for the launch of The Strad’s new educational conference. On this side of the Atlantic she tours with classical guitarist Jason Vieaux, and joins the Pasadena Symphony for Adam Schoenberg’s Orchard in Fog, written especially for Meyers. Down the road, she’ll play commissions from Arturo Márquez, Michael Daugherty and Julia Adolphe. Catch her live at The Greene Space on January 31, performing music by Arvo Pärt, John Corigliano and John Williams.

Mahan Esfahani, harpsichordist

Throughout his career, Iranian-American Mahan Esfahani has been making a particularly strong case for ushering harpsichord performance practice into the modern era. If you’ve yet to experience his work, allow yourself to be challenged in the best possible way as he encourages you to consider the harpsichord unbound by the straightjacket of history: “Until (it) has the presence that any other mainstream instrument has,” he notes, “my work isn’t done.” Hot on the heels of his acclaimed Carnegie Hall debut last year (in which New Yorker critic Alex Ross singled out his “exuberant, anti-sentimental” playing), in 2019 he crosses the U.S. evangelizing for all that is good about the harpsichord. He has concert dates with the Seattle Symphony, an engagement at Indiana’s Purdue University and a collaboration with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at the 92nd Street Y.

Read more here.

Miroirs CA: Mirror in Mirror by Anne Akiko Meyers

Miroirs CA

Mirror, mirror on the wall, guess who released one of the most intriguing recordings of them all? Anne Akiko Meyers, of course. This boutique style CD features arrangements of works by composers of our time that contain a satisfying amount of spirituality and pathos. While Ravel is a composer for all time, the disc includes Tzigane, one of her go to pieces, and for good reason.

Read more here.

Anne Akiko Meyers Releases 37th Album, Mirror in Mirror, for Pre-Order

Video Preview of Mirror in Mirror

Anne Akiko Meyers will release Mirror in Mirror on Avie on September 7th. Now available for pre-order through Amazon and iTunes, this album features compositions written or arranged for Ms. Meyers by Jakub Ciupiński, John Corigliano, Philip Glass, Morten Lauridsen, and Arvo Pärt, and also includes Ravel’s Tzigane, in the original luthéal version.

“Almost a decade in the making, Mirror in Mirror is in many ways my most personal recording,” Ms. Meyers stated. “With the exception of Ravel, I collaborated with all of the composers or arrangers on this album and have created several new masterpieces to add to the violin repertoire. The music on this release is reflective and spiritual and captures the exquisitely beautiful array of colors of the violin.”

The release includes Arvo Pärt’s iconic Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror in Mirror), Philip Glass’s hauntingly beautiful Metamorphosis II in a new arrangement for violin and piano, John Corigliano’s Lullaby for Natalie (written for the birth of Anne’s first daughter), the Japanese traditional song, Edo Lullaby, arranged for violin and electronics by Jakub Ciupiński, and Morten Lauridsen’s spellbinding O Magnum Mysterium for violin and orchestra. Other works include the original luthéal version of Maurice Ravel’s Tzigane, Pärt’s mesmerizing Fratres, and Ciupiński’s Wreck of the Umbria for violin and electronics written in 2009 for Ms. Meyers.

Anne Akiko Meyers is one of today’s most popular performing and recording artists.  Her recent recording of Rautavaara’s Fantasia was the only classical instrumental work to be selected on NPR’s 100 best songs of 2017. Meyers’ Vivaldi and American Masters albums topped the Billboard charts, making her the top-selling traditional classical instrumental soloist of 2014.

Highlights of Anne’s upcoming season include four performances celebrating the opening of the new Arvo Pärt Centre in Estonia this October and a Great Performances television broadcast of “Schindler’s List” in a special tribute which honors John Williams. These appearances are by exclusive special invitation of Maestros Pärt and Williams.  In December, she plays the European premiere of Rautavaara’s Fantasia and Mason Bates’ Violin Concerto with the Helsinki Philharmonic in a worldwide live-streamed performance, and in 2019, Anne returns to Japan to premiere Rautavaara’s Fantasia and tours with guitarist, Jason Vieaux throughout the United States.

Please visit www.anneakikomeyers.com for more info.

The Strad Cover – June 2018

The Strad
Terry Borman

This is an extract from the second part of Terry Borman’s detailed examination of the ‘Vieuxtemps’ Guarneri ‘Del Gesù’, with contributions from experts in the latest technologies, investigating acoustics, dendrochronology, varnish analysis and plate thicknesses. Download the June issue on desktop computer, via the The Strad App, or buy the print edition

Two months before his death in June 1881, Henri Vieuxtemps was considering selling his beloved 1741 Guarneri ‘del Gesù’ violin. He was no longer able to play, having suffered a stroke, and in a letter dated 9 April 1881 he told his friend, cellist Joseph Van der Heyden, that the instrument would ‘cost the buyer a lot, but it will be well worth it because this violin is a unique pearl’.

In early January 2013 the world found out how prescient his comment was, as the newspapers were flooded with reports about the violin’s sale to an anonymous buyer for an undisclosed sum – stating only that it was in excess of $16 million (£9.8 million).

That made it, at the time and still five years later, the most expensive violin in the world. The news also stated that it was to be a lifetime loan to the US violinist Anne Akiko Meyers.

The ‘Vieuxtemps’ Guarneri ‘Del Gesù’
Photo: J. & A. Beare Ltd

Read the full excerpt here.

Watch:  Anne Akiko Meyers plays Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso on the ‘Vieuxtemps’ Guarneri

Strings: Anne Akiko Meyers Reminisces on a Childhood Spent in Los Angeles

Strings
Anne Akiko Meyers

Anne Akiko Meyers as a child and onstage at the Emmy Awards Show

To quote Randy Newman, “I love L.A.!” I feel very fortunate to again call Los Angeles my home base. The year-round warm climate, beautiful ocean and mountain views, thriving music scene, world-class restaurants, and friendly people make it a wonderful place to live.

I was born in San Diego, moved to the middle of the Mojave Desert for a few years (my mother drove three hours each way for violin lessons in Los Angeles), and then grew up in L.A. until I was a teenager. It was the perfect place for an aspiring violinist to learn and grow.

When I was seven years old, I began studies with Alice Schoenfeld and had chamber-music coachings with her sister Eleonore. I had bi-weekly lessons, chamber-music studies, and classes at the Community School of Performing Arts (now the Colburn School) on the weekends. When driving around we listened to—and today still listen to—KUSC, with the comforting and friendly voice of Jim Svejda in the car.

To read the full article, click here.

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Meyers triumphs in Schoenberg concerto

San Diego Union-Tribune
Marcus Overton

Commissioned by and written in honor of San Diego native Anne Akiko Meyers, this meditation on age and memory (its title is “Orchard in Fog”) stands a good chance of entering the standard repertory, for it combines evocative tone painting with complex technical demands (like playing on the violin’s highest strings, where faulty intonation is ruthlessly exposed). Its two outer movements, wistful, silvery-gray like a Whistler painting, frame a devilishly syncopated dance movement that almost seems improvised.

Meyers’ playing is what it always has been: a national treasure. Her unshowy approach to her work has saved her from becoming a celebrity, and she has left a trail of unsurpassed achievement behind her in recordings, chamber music and orchestra solo appearances around the globe, as well as authorial collaborations and, best of all, active championing of living composers.

Above all, she is a musical wizard, with astonishing access to every kind of expressive color. Whether within a phrase or on just a single note, she can change tone color in a micro-second from smooth grain to rough, from dark to radiant, from thoughtful to assertive. And she can, like magic, bring new work to vibrant life.

Read the full article here.

Broadway World: Anne Akiko Meyers And San Diego Symphony To Stream World Premiere Of Adam Schoenberg's Violin Concerto

Broadway World

Superstar violinist Anne Akiko Meyers and the San Diego Symphony will present the world premiere of Adam Schoenberg's Concerto "Orchard in Fog" for Violin and Orchestra. 2018 Grammy-nominated composer, Adam Schoenberg, wrote this work for violinist Anne Akiko Meyers who will perform with Sameer Patel conducting the San Diego Symphony Orchestra in performances Saturday, February 10, 2018, at 8pm and Sunday, February 11 at 2pm.

The Sunday performance can be viewed at www.facebook.com/theviolinchannel/ at the following local times: 2:00 pm PST, 5:00 pm EST, 10:00 pm London (GMT), 7:00 am Tokyo (GMT+9).

Anne Akiko Meyers is one of the most popular violinists in the world, regularly appearing as guest soloist with the world's top orchestras, presenting groundbreaking recitals and receiving universal acclaim as a best-selling recording artist with 36 albums releases. She has closely collaborated and commissioned composers including Mason Bates, John Corigliano, Wynton Marsalis, Arvo Pärt and Einojuhani Rautavaara.

Composer Adam Schoenberg was recently named one of the top 10 most performed living classical composers by orchestras in the United States. He also received two 2018 Grammy nominations for his self-titled album.