| Biography | Yuzuko Horigome started learning the piano at the age of four; she began the violin the following year, studying with Ryosaku Kubota. In 1975, she continued her violin studies with Toshiya Eto, before graduating from the Toho Gakuen School of Music in 1980. That same year she became the first Japanese musician to win First Prize in the Queen Elisabeth Competition. She has played with the Berlin and New York Philharmonic Orchestras; the London, Chicago, St. Petersburg, Montreal, Vienna, and Tokyo Symphony Orchestras; the Amsterdam Concertgebouw; La Scala (Milan); the RAI Orchestra; the New Japan Philharmonic; and the Camerata Salzburg. She has performed with prestigious conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Andre Prévin, Kurt Masur, Charles Dutoit, Riccardo Chailly, Erich Leinsdorf, Seiji Ozawa, Ivan Fischer, Simon Rattle, Alexander Dmitriev, Vladimir Ashkenazy, and Sándor Végh. In chamber music she has played with Martha Argerich, Abdel Rahman El-Bacha, Pascal Rogé, Jean-Marc Luisada, Wolfgang Manz, Gidon Kremer, Philippe Graffin, Thomas Zehetmair, Nobuko Imai, Kim Kashkashian, Mischa Maisky, Antonio Meneses and many others. Yuzuko Horigome has been, and continues to be, a guest at many international festivals including Marlboro, Lockenhaus, Tanglewood, La Jolla Music Summerfest, Lugano, and Buenos Aires. A guest teacher at the Brussels Conservatory, she is one of the most prominent soloists in Japan, where she tours for several months every year. |