Born in Tokyo and beginning her musical career in Montréal and New York, violinist Karen Gomyo has recently made Berlin her home. A musician of the highest calibre, the Chicago Tribune praised her as „… a first-rate artist of real musical command, vitality, brilliance and intensity“.
A major highlight of the 2021/22 season is Karen’s subscription debut with New York Philharmonic, performing Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with Dima Slobodeniouk, who stepped in for Semyon Bychkov. Under Maestro Bychkov Karen will also perform the Shostakovich with Czech Philharmonic, returning to the orchestra having debuted only last season. Other highlights include returns to Bamberger Symphoniker, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg and the symphony orchestras of Toronto and Detroit. Last summer Karen returned to Los Angeles Philharmonic performing at the Hollywood Bowl under Gustavo Dudamel.
In Europe Karen has worked with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, WDR Sinfonieorchester, Dresdner Philharmoniker, Polish National Radio Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Radio France, Danish National Symphony, Kristiansand Symphony, BBC Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
Further afield her popularity in Australasia continued over the last few seasons as she toured with New Zealand Symphony and appeared with West Australian Symphony Orchestra in Perth, Tasmanian Symphony and in recital at the Sydney Opera House.
Already well established in North America Karen has performed with Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra and the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Dallas, Cincinnati, Montréal, Vancouver, St. Louis, and Washington D.C.
Strongly committed to contemporary works, Karen gave the North American premiere of Matthias Pintscher’s Concerto No. 2 Mar’eh in 2015 with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington under the baton of the composer. In May 2018 she performed the world premiere of Samuel Adams’ new Chamber Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen to great critical acclaim. The work was written specifically for Karen and commissioned by the CSO’s ‘Music Now’ series for their 20th anniversary.
Karen has had the pleasure of working with such conductors as Sir Andrew Davis, Cristian Măcelaru, David Robertson, David Zinman, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Hannu Lintu, Pietari Inkinen, Jaap van Zweden, Jakub Hrusa, James Gaffigan, Karina Canellakis, Leonard Slatkin, Louis Langrée, Mark Wigglesworth, Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla, Neeme Järvi, Pinchas Zukerman, Thomas Dausgaard, Thomas Søndergård, Vasily Petrenko and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
She is a champion of the Nuevo Tango music of Astor Piazzolla having regularly collaborated with Piazzolla’s long-time pianist and tango legend Pablo Ziegler, as well as with bandoneon players Hector de Curto and JP Jofre. In 2021 Karen released ‘A Piazzolla Triology’ on BIS Records, recorded with the Strings of Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and guitarist Stephanie Jones. It follows Karen’s first project with BIS, a collection of works by Paganini and his baroque predecessors recorded with guitarist Ismo Eskelinen, released in 2019.
A passionate chamber musician, Karen has also collaborated with Kathryn Stott, Leif Ove Andsnes, James Ehnes, Antoine Tamestit, Emmanuel Pahud, Lawrence Power, Christian Poltéra, Alisa Weilerstein, Tine Thing Helseth, Lars Anders Tomter, Eric le Sage, Daishin Kashimoto, Paul Meyer, and the late Heinrich Schiff. She gave a three-week tour of Australia with Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and members of the Australian Chamber Orchestra and has also joined Jeremy Denk at his Milton Court/Barbican residency in London. She has also been a regular at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.
Karen participated as violinist, host, and narrator in a documentary film produced by NHK Japan about Antonio Stradivarius called The Mysteries of the Supreme Violin, which was broadcast worldwide on NHK WORLD.
Auftritte in der Spielzeit 2022/2023:
- 4. Philharmonisches Konzert · Mi. 30. November / Do. 1. Dezember 2022
Stand September 2021, Quelle: Askonas Holt
Foto: Gabrielle Revere
