Mie Kobayashi, violin
Mie Kobayashi is one of Japan’s leading violinists. Her refined but dynamic performances have won high acclaim in Japan and elsewhere.
Mie Kobayashi studied at the high school attached to the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and continued to study at the university, from which she graduated at the top of her class. She won the Ataka prize and the Fukushima prize while studying at the university. She received the Kawai Overseas Competition Award in 1984, and Second Prize at the Louis Spohr International Competition, also earning a prize for sonata interpretation in 1988.
In 1990 she became the first Japanese to win the top prize of the violin division of the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud International Competition for Piano and Violin, and from that point she began her professional career inside and outside Japan.
Kobayashi has performed as a soloist with leading Japanese orchestras including
NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, and Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, as well as Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra and Prague Symphony Orchestra, all to high acclaim. She is also active in the field of chamber music, performing with prominent musicians and as a member of the Shizuoka AOI Quartet, at festivals including Karuizawa International Music Festival where she appears every year.
Kobayashi has released numerous CDs including ”Plays Kreisler”, duo with Pascal Rogé “Fauré” and “Ravel & Enescu”, and a collection of famous violin pieces including “Zigeunerweisen”.
In 2010, she gave an outstanding performance in a recital at Kioi Hall marking the 20th anniversary of her debut, and was invited to become a jury member of the violin division of the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud International Competition. In 2012, Kobayashi performed at the concert in Pakistan to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between Japan and Pakistan. She has also performed in France, England, Thailand, China, Korea, and New Zealand, and fascinated audience.
Kobayashi’s recitals, chamber music concerts, and performances with orchestras are scheduled nationwide for the coming years.
In 2015 commemorating the 25th anniversary of her debut, a three-year series of six concerts was planned and successfully completed. In February 2018, a new series of recitals to explore multi-faceted allure of the violin has started.
Currently she is a guest professor at Showa University of Music.