Haruko Motohashi
First Prize winner of the 2004 YBP International Music Competition and Music Competition and
2000 Wakayama Music Competition in Japan, the violinist Haruko Motohashi has been promoted by the International Artists Association of Japan to perform concerts and recitals in Tokyo Opera City Recital Hall, Sumida Triphony Hall, as well as Suntory Hall.
Haruko was selected as a finalist of David Martin/Florence Hooton Concerto Prize in 2002, the Wilfred Parry Prize at the RAM in 2003, and in 2004 she was one of the few contestants selected to take part in the “Premio Paganini 50thInternational Violin Competition” in Genoa, Italy. In 2006, she was selected as semi-finalists of Junesses Musicales International competition in Belgrade, Serbia. She has also performed as a soloist in the Pacific Music Festival in 1997.
Her recent concerts have included performances, at the Snape Maltings Concert Hall as part of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, New Music New Media, solo recitals at Bristol Cathedral, Oxford Wolfson College, Duke’s Hall, David Josefowitz Recital Hall (Royal Academy of Music, London) and at the London Depford Council Chamber (Goldsmiths College, London) and gives many performances throughout the UK, Europe and Japan, most recently at the V&A Museum, Norfolk Music room as part of the Royal College of Music Early Evening recital series.
In her commitment to contemporary music, Haruko has worked with many of today’s most important composers and works regularly with today’s leading young composers, having premiered David Owen’s new Violin Concerto with the Goldsmiths College Orchestra, conducted by Roger Redgatge in February 2008, also premiered a few new works written especially for her. She was invited to take a part of “2007 Contemporary Performance and Composition” (Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme), directed by Oliver Knussen, Collin Matthews, and Magnus Lindberg.
Haruko began studying the violin under the Suzuki method at the age of three, in her native city of Tokyo. Later, she studied with Takashi Shimizu at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, and over the years she has also performed in Master Classes with Yfrah Neaman, Igor Oistrakh, Valeri Oistrakh, Mincho Mintchev, Eduard Schmieder, Masao Kawasaki, Toru Yasunaga and Koichiro Harada.
Haruko completed her studying in October 2012 and received the MSc, Masters of Science in Performance Science from the Royal College of Music, London (supervisor - Aaron Williamon) and received another Masters in Music, specialising in New Music from the Goldsmiths College, University of London (studying with Darragh Morgan) in November 2007, and in June 2005, Postgraduate Diploma with Distinction DipRAM (for an outstanding final recital) from the Royal Academy of Music, London (studying with Hu Kun / Remus Azoitei) also holds BMus Bachelor Degree 1st class distinction from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (studying with Takashi Shimizu).
She is now based in Tokyo after 10 years of studying and teaching in London. She gave many recitals throughout the UK with her regular Pianist, Masachi Nishiyama and worked with the Tudor Orchestra as leader between 2008 and 2013.