MARIKO ANRAKU, HARP, and Friends
with The Avalon String Quartet
and Patrick Messina and Michael Parloff
Concert Artists Guild New York Competition
Mariko Anraku has won attention as one of the world's outstanding young harpists through numerous appearances as soloist and chamber musician. She has enchanted audiences throughout the world with her virtuosity and "manifestation of grace and elegance" (Jerusalem Post). Her impressive list of competition awards includes First Prize of the Concert Artists Guild Competition, where she also won the Channel Classics Recording Prize and ITT Corporation Prize, the Pro Musicis Foundation Award, First Prize of the Japan International Harp Competition, and Third Prize of the International Harp Contest in Israel, where she was also awarded the Pearl Chertok Prize for the best performance of the required Israeli composition.
As an active chamber musician, Ms. Anraku has performed at the Spoleto, Tanglewood and the Newport Music Festivals in the United States, the Banff Festival of the Arts and the Festival of Sound in Canada, the Spoleto Festival in Italy and the Karuizawa and Takefu Music festivals in Japan. She has also performed for the Harvard Music Association and Columbia University and has collaborated with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, flutists Carol Wincenc, Paula Robison and Emmanuel Pahud.
Ms. Anraku is Associate Principal Harpist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. She holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees from The Juilliard School, where she was a student of Nancy Allen. The recipient of an Artist's Diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto where she studied with Judy Loman, Ms. Anraku also has studied Art History at Tokyo's Sophia University.
Ms. Anraku's recent and upcoming performances include the U.S. premiere of Jean-Michel Damase's Concerto "Ballade" with the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, recitals at Harvard and Purdue Universities, and concerts with flutist Paula Robison at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; special appearances at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival and at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall; tours of Japan, including concerto performances with the Tokyo Symphony; and chamber music collaborations at Victoria Hall in Geneva and with Metropolitan Opera musicians.