Karen Gomyo
Violin
Bio
Karen Gomyo has captivated audiences in North America, Europe and Australasia with her musical integrity, technical assurance and compelling interpretations.
Ms. Gomyo has worked with the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, and the Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Houston, Vancouver, Indianapolis and Oregon symphonies, among many others. Recent and upcoming appearances in North America include a tour with the Toronto Symphony to Montreal and Ottawa, debuts with the Pittsburgh and New World symphonies, Montreal’s Orchestre Metropolitain and the Caramoor Music Festival, and re-engagements with the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl and at Disney Hall and the St. Louis, Detroit, Dallas, Toronto, Milwaukee and New Jersey symphonies and the Minnesota and the National Arts Centre Orchestras.
Internationally, Ms. Gomyo has appeared with the Philharmonia in London, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Bamberg Symphony, Danish National Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Radio France, Deutsches Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the Polish National Radio Orchestra in Europe; and in Australasia with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmania and West Australia (Perth) symphonies as well as on tour with the New Zealand Symphony. In October 2020, she made her debut with the Czech Philharmonic under the baton of Semyon Bychkov and returned to Prague to work with the orchestra again in December 2021. Maestro Bychkov also invited Ms. Gomyo to be his soloist with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome in April 2022.
Ms. Gomyo has also had the pleasure of working with such eminent conductors as Sir Andrew Davis, Jaap van Zweden, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Neeme Järvi, David Robertson, David Zinman, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Louis Langrée, Thomas Dausgaard, James Gaffigan, Jakub Hrusa, Pinchas Zukerman, Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla, Hannu Lintu and Thomas Søndergård.
Strongly committed to contemporary works, in May 2018, Ms. Gomyo performed the world premiere of Samuel Adams’ Chamber Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen to great critical acclaim. The work was written for her and commissioned by the CSO to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its MusicNow series. She also performed the North American premiere of Matthias Pintscher’s Concerto No. 2 “Mar'eh” with the composer conducting the National Symphony Orchestra, as well as Peteris Vasks' "Vox Amoris" with the Lapland Chamber Orchestra conducted by John Storgårds. In March 2024, she will premiere a double concerto written for her and trumpet player Tine Thing Helsmeth composed by Xi Wang with the Dallas Symphony.
Karen Gomyo is deeply interested in the Nuevo Tango music of Astor Piazzolla and collaborates with Piazzolla’s longtime pianist and tango legend Pablo Ziegler. She also performs regularly with the Finnish guitarist Ismo Eskelinen, with whom she has appeared at the Dresden and Mainz Festivals in Germany, and in recitals in Helsinki and New York.
Born in Tokyo, Ms. Gomyo studied in Montreal and in New York at The Juilliard School with famed violin pedagogue Dorothy DeLay. She plays on the “Aurora, exFoulis” Stradivarius violin of 1703 that was bought for her exclusive use by a private sponsor.
