Elisa Kawaguti

Elisa Kawaguti (b. 1959) is a Japanese violinist and music educator who lives in Belgium, a professor of violin at the Lemmensinstituut and first violin of the Spiegel String Quartet. Elisa was born in Kitakyushu and studied with Yoshio Unno at the Tokyo National University Of Fine Arts And Music and André Gertler at Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel. She won the second prize at the 8th International Henryk Wieniawski Competition (1981) and became a laureate of the Nicolo Paganini Competition (1984) in Genoa and Queen Elizabeth Competition (1985) in Brussels. From 1996 to 2000, Elisa Kawaguti was a concertmaster of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic. She also formed a duo with Yves Storms (guitar) and gave numerous concerts in Japan, China, Europe and South America. In 1994, Kawaguti founded the Euro Nippon Music Festival and started organizing master classes for young musicians in Belgium, Japan and France.