Anne Akiko Meyers

Background

Meyers was born in San Diego, California, the daughter of an artist and college president. Her mother is of Japanese descent. Raised in Southern California, she studied with Shirley Helmick, and then with Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld at the Colburn School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles. She then studied with Josef Gingold at Indiana University—and Dorothy DeLay, Felix Galimir, and Masao Kawasaki at the Juilliard School in New York City. Combining her junior and senior high school years and graduating early from the Juilliard School at age 20, she began touring internationally and recording exclusively for RCA Red Seal.

Early career

Described as a child prodigy after her debut with a local community orchestra at the age of 7, she subsequently performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, twice on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson at age 11, the Emmy Award Show and the New York Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta at age 12. When she was 16, Meyers signed with ICM Artists and began touring and recording. Two years later she recorded her first album in London at the Abbey Road Studios, featuring the Barber and Bruch Concertos with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Having signed an exclusive RCA Red Seal contract at the age of 21, she went on to record a comprehensive discography. At the age of 23, she was the sole recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Instruments

Meyers has lifetime use, for touring and performances, of the 1741 Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesu. She previously toured with a 1730 Stradivarius violin called the Royal Spanish, and a 1697 Stradivarius called Molitor. It was purchased from Tarisio Auctions on October 14, 2010 for US$3,600,000, at the time the highest recorded auction price for any musical instrument until the Lady Blunt Strad was sold on June 20, 2011. Meyers has used the Molitor in multiple studio recordings including a recording of Bach's Concerto in D minor for Two Violins, BWV 1043, in which she plays both parts—one part on the "Royal Spanish" Strad and the other on the ex-Molitor. In 2012, an anonymous buyer purchased the 1741 Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesu for an undisclosed amount (reportedly over $16 million), and granted Meyers lifetime use of it.

Professional career

Meyers was the special guest violinist as part of Il Divo's Christmas Tour 2009 and toured with Chris Botti in 2010. On September 11, 2015, Naïve Classiques released "Passacaglia" Works for violin and orchestra of Arvo Pärt with MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra and Kristjan Jarvi conducting, in celebration of Pärt's 80th birthday.

Notable commissions and premieres

A supporter of contemporary composers, Meyers has premiered works by John Corigliano, Olivier Messiaen, Arvo Pärt, David Baker, Mason Bates, Jakub Ciupinski, Gene Pritsker, Nathan Currier, Roddy Ellias, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Jennifer Higdon, Wynton Marsalis, Akira Miyoshi, Manuel Maria Ponce, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Somei Satoh, Joseph Schwantner, and Ezequiel Viñao.

Two works written expressly for Meyers include the Somei Satoh Violin Concerto, recorded live with Tetsuji Honna and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in 2002 and Angelfire by Pulitzer-prize winning composer Joseph Schwantner, premiered live in 2002 at the Kennedy Center conducted by Marin Alsop and recorded in 2004 with Andrew Litton and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Meyers asked the jazz star Wynton Marsalis to write cadenzas for her in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major, which she premiered with the Utah Symphony Orchestra in 2009.

Meyers commissioned Mason Bates to write his first violin concerto. She performed the world premiere with Leonard Slatkin and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in December 2012.

On September 30, 2014, Meyers released The American Masters, which features two world premieres: Mason Bates's Violin Concerto and the Lullaby for Natalie by John Corigliano, written for the birth of her first-born daughter, Natalie. The album also features Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto and made Google Play's Best of 2014.

Meyers appeared in a nationwide PBS broadcast special aired in fall 2015 featuring the world premiere of Samuel Jones' Violin Concerto with the All-Star Orchestra led by Gerard Schwarz. The performance was also part of a DVD released by Naxos Records.

In September 2015, Meyers released Serenade: The Love Album, her 34th album featuring Leonard Bernstein's epic Serenade. Meyers commissioned seven arrangers including Adam Schoenberg, Brad Dechter, J.A.C. Redford and Steven Mercurio to arrange ten love-inspired works from classic movies and the American Songbook. The seven arrangers were chosen to resemble the seven philosophers of Plato's Symposium, which Bernstein's Serenade is based on. The album was recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra with Keith Lockhart conducting.

Additionally, The Engagements written by novelist J. Courtney Sullivan is loosely based on Meyers's career and was one of People Magazine's Top 10 Books of the Year in 2014.

Meyers also played the violinist character, Violetta, in Crumpet the Trumpet by children's book author and illustrator, Kristine Papillon.

Billboard Charts

Air – The Bach Album debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard Charts on its release on February 14, 2012. It featured "Bach Double" played on two different Stradivarius violins, the first time this had been accomplished.

Meyers The Vivaldi Four Seasons Album debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard Charts when released on February 14, 2014.

Meyers was the top-selling classical instrumentalist of 2014 on Billboard's traditional classical charts.

Music videos

Awards and honors

In 1993 at the age of 23, Meyers was the sole recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, which is awarded by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts to up to five promising young artists each year.

In 2006, Meyers served as a panelist, recitalist, and teacher at the Juilliard School's Starling-DeLay Symposium. In May 2008, UCLA invited Meyers to be the Regent's Lecturer in violin.

In late 2009, Meyers joined the Butler School of Music at University of Texas at Austin as Distinguished Artist and Professor of Violin.

In September 2015, Meyers was honored with a Luminary Award by the Pasadena Symphony for her long-standing support of the Pasadena Symphony.

Personal life

Meyers lives with her husband and two young daughters in Los Angeles, CA