Keisuke Okazaki

Born in 1979 in Fukuoka, Japan, Keisuke Okazaki started to play the violin at the age of four; aged thirteen, he was highly praised by Yehudi Menuhin, and he made his first public appearance aged 14. From Tokyo, he went on to study in Lübeck, Köln, at the Salzburg Mozarteum, and with the Berlin Philharmonic's Karajan-Academy. He has won numerous competitions, most notably First Prizes in both the 54th ARD International Music Competition in Munich (2005) and the 1997 Wieniawski Violin Competition in Lublin; he was also a finalist in the 2005 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. As a soloist, Keisuke has appeared at festivals including Ceský Krumlov, and the Zino Francescatti Festival in France. He has performed with orchestras and ensembles including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the St Petersburg Philharmonic, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Ensemble Modern. His repertoire ranges from the Baroque to contemporary works by composers such as Toshio Hosokawa; in 2006, he premiered Morgan Hayes' Violin Concerto with BCMG. As a member of the Aurata Quintet of Berlin, he has also given chamber music concerts across Europe. His recordings include 'Keisuke-Debut!' (2000), 'Kreutzer & Franck' (2008) and an ongoing series of the complete Beethoven violin sonatas for Fontec. Since 2009 he has been a leader of the Zürich Opera Orchestra in Switzerland.