Anne Akiko Meyers finished 2014 as the top selling instrumentalist on Billboard. The strong success of Ms. Meyers’s 2014 releases, The Four Seasons and The American Masters, as well as her 2013 AIR: The Bach Album contributed to this achievement.
The American Masters – released on September 30^th – featured world premieres of two pieces written for her: Mason Bates’s Violin Concerto and the Lullaby for Natalie by Oscar and Grammy Award–winning composer John Corigliano. This recording also included Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto, one of the most beloved American Violin Concertos and a signature piece of Ms. Meyers. Leonard Slatkin, a champion of all three composers, conducted the London Symphony Orchestra. The critically-heralded album was named one of the Best of 2014 by Google Play and received rave reviews from the Chicago Tribune (“the most noteworthy new music encounter” of the year), Musical Toronto (“Anne Akiko Meyers plays everything on this CD with warmth and commitment, and with a commanding technique”) and the taste-making new music digital magazine I Care if You Listen (“effortless virtuosity”).
The American Masters was preceded by Meyers’s February 11, 2014 release of The Four Seasons: The Vivaldi Album, which marked the recording debut of Guarneri del Gesù’s 1741 ‘Vieuxtemps’ violin, considered the best violin ever made. The album – which also contained Vivaldi’s Triple Concerto, with Ms. Meyers performing all three solo parts and Arvo Pärt’s Passacaglia – debuted at #1 on the Billboard Classical Chart, was featured on NPR’s Morning Edition and chosen by KDFC in San Francisco as one of their favorite albums of 2014. All Music Guide raved “it simply has very rarely had such a combination of soaring songfulness and sheer instrumental power” and Strad Magazine, "she vividly portrays the varying moods in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with playing that is quite remarkable in its dexterity and technical brilliance."
For more details about the albums and Anne Akiko Meyers’s 2015 concert appearances, please visit www.anneakikomeyers.com.
ANNE AKIKO MEYERS
Anne Akiko Meyers is celebrated around the world for her artistry and ability to connect with audiences from the concert stage, online, and in television, and radio broadcasts. She regularly performs in recital and as guest soloist with many of the world’s top orchestras, and is a best-selling recording artist who has released 30 albums. She was Billboard's top-selling traditional classical instrumental soloist of 2014.
Future highlights include performances with Leonard Slatkin and the Orchestre de Lyon, Kristjan Järvi and the MDR Leipzig Orchestra, a new recording with Keith Lockhart and the London Symphony Orchestra, and recital and solo appearances throughout North America. An avid commissioner of new music, Meyers will premiere Mason Bates, Samuel Jones and Somei Satoh’s music as well as new arrangements from the American Songbook music in numerous cities nationwide.
This past fall, eOne Music released The American Masters, Ms. Meyers’s 30th release, featuring the world premiere recordings of the Mason Bates Violin Concerto and John Corigliano’s ‘Lullaby for Natalie’ (written for Ms.Meyers’s first born daughter). Also featured, the Samuel Barber Violin Concerto, with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Slatkin. In addition, Anne will make the world premiere of the Samuel Jones Violin Concerto with the All-Star Orchestra, conducted by Gerard Schwarz, in a nationwide PBS broadcast special, to be aired in the fall, 2015 and released on DVD by Naxos.
In recent seasons, Anne released the Four Seasons: The Vivaldi Album, and Air, the Bach Album, on eOne Music. Both recordings debuted at #1 on the classical Billboard charts and received great critical acclaim. The Vivaldi Album was the recording debut of the ‘Ex-Vieuxtemps’ Guarneri del Gesu violin, dated 1741, which was recently awarded to Meyers for her lifetime use. This instrument is considered by many to be the finest sounding violin in existence. Watch the story here.
Meyers’s recent performances included recital and concerto appearances in North and South America, Europe and Asia, including performances with the Chicago, Detroit, Nashville, and Richmond Symphony Orchestras of the Mason Bates Violin Concerto, a work she co-commissioned and premiered with the Pittsburgh Symphony in December 2012.
A champion of living composers, Meyers has actively added new works to the violin repertoire by commissioning and premiering works by composers such as Mason Bates, Jakub Ciupinski, John Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon, Samuel Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Akira Miyoshi, Arvo Part, Gene Pritsker, Somei Satoh and Joseph Schwantner.
Anne Akiko Meyers has collaborated with a diverse array of artists outside of traditional classical, including jazz icons, Chris Botti and Wynton Marsalis, avant-garde musician, Ryuichi Sakamoto, electronic music pioneer, Isao Tomita, popera group, Il Divo and singer, Michael Bolton. She performed the National Anthem in front of 42,000 fans at Safeco Field in Seattle, and appeared twice on The Tonight Show and was featured in a segment on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann that became the third most popular story of the year.
Ms. Meyers has been featured on NPR's Morning Edition with Linda Wertheimer and All Things Considered with Robert Siegel and has been regularly featured on Boston’s WGBH, Chicago’s WFMT, New York’s WQXR radio and SiriusXM Radio. Best-selling novelist, J.Courtney Sullivan, consulted with Ms. Meyers for The Engagements, and based one of the main characters loosely on Ms. Meyers’s career. Anne was also featured on the popular NickJr. show, Take Me To Your Mother, with Andrea Rosen on the episode, 'Andrea Gets in Tune'.
Anne Akiko Meyers was born in San Diego, California and grew up in Southern California. Her teachers include Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld at the Colburn School of Performing Arts, Josef Gingold at Indiana University, and Felix Galimir, Masao Kawasaki and Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School. She received the Avery Fisher Career Grant and serves on the advisory board of Composers Concordance and Young Concert Artists. Ms.Meyers lives with her husband and two young daughters in Austin, Texas.Anne Akiko Meyers is one of today’s premier violinists. She burst into national prominence at age 11, performing twice on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and appearing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The following year she made her New York Philharmonic debut with Zubin Mehta. While in her teens, Anne performed throughout the United States, Japan, Australia and Europe. By age 18, when her debut recording with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of the Barber and Bruch violin concertos was released, she was recognized as one of the stars of her generation. Ms. Meyers has premiered works by composers, including Mason Bates, Jakub Ciupinski, John Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon, Wynton Marsalis, Olivier Messiaen, Gene Pritsker, Somei Satoh and Joseph Schwantner and has collaborated with diverse artists such as Chris Botti, Il Divo, Wynton Marsalis and Ryuichi Sakamoto. She was recently granted lifetime exclusive use of the 1741 ‘Vieuxtemps’ Guarneri del Gesù violin, considered one of the finest violins ever crafted. A video of Ms. Meyers playing this instrument at Carnegie Hall can be seen here (http://youtu.be/SPslZVBUFqk?utm_source=01-14-09_Contacts&utm_campaign=edb5b35106-Anne+Akiko+Meyers&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1497688fe3-edb5b35106-59975090) . For more information, visit Ms. Meyers’ website at anneakikomeyers.com.