Akiko Ono

Akiko Ono launched her successful after winning numerous prizes in prestigious competitions such as the Yehudi Menuhin, the Queen Elisabeth, the Szigeti, the Paganini, the Viotti-Valsesia and the Forval-Scolarship Stradivarius Competition.

Since then she has performed throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central America and Japan with major orchestras including the Belgian National Orchestra, Weimar Staatskapelle, Lille National Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra amoung others with conductors such as Yehudi Menuhin, Shlomo Mintz, Saulus Sondeckis, Hans Drewanz, George Alexander Albrecht, Mattias Bamert, James Judd and many others.

Akiko Ono made her debut with Yehudi Menuhin and the Essen Philharmonic Orchestra at the UNCEF Gala Concert in Germany in 1998. Other highlights of her career include a performance alongside Anne-Sophie Mutter and Mstislav Rostropovich at Lord Menuhin's 80th Birthday Gala Concert at the ROyal Albert Hall in 1996, an invitation by Vanessa Redgrave to perform at the UN Headquarters in New York to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" in 1998, a performance at the "Japan Festival 2001" at the Windsor Castle and at the "Asian Gala" at the Buckingham Palace in the UK.

In recent seasons Akiko made appearances with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Osaka Symphony Orchestra, a debut at the Carnegie Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, and a tour with Midori Goto on her community engagement project in Vietnam. In 2008, she released her first CD with a renowned composer-pianist Ichiro Nodaiira, wich has been reviewed highly.

Alongside her word as a soloist, Akiko sets great value on outreach activities such as for the Red Cross and UNICEF, and is one of the appointed artists of the Japan FOundation for Regional Arts-Activities since 2006. Born in Tokyo, she moved to UK when she was 12 where she studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School and later with Dora Schwarzberg and Michael Frischenschlager at the University of Music and performing Arts in Vienna.Currently Akiko Ono teaches at the Yehudi Menuhin in the UK and she plays a violin by J.B. Guadagnini made in 1772 loaned by an anonymous supporter.