Kazuhiro Takagi
Violinist/Japan
FEATURED SOLOIST 2017
Kazuhiro Takagi enjoys an international career and reputation as violin soloist, recording artist, and leader of orchestras. He has served tenures as concertmaster of the Tokyo Symphony (2007-2013), Chicago Civic Orchestra (under Daniel Barenboim), and solo concertmaster of the Yamagata Symphony and Wuerttembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen in Germany. As a soloist, he has played with a number of national and international orchestras including prestigious orchestras in his native Japan such as Osaka Philharmonic and Osaka Symphony Orchestras, Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra, and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Takagi has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in the United States, Europe and Japan. He is a laureate of the prestigious Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition and the prizewinner of the 54th Geneva International Music Competition. As first violinist of the Eusia String Quartet, he received First Prize in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in Indiana. For his performances, he has also received the coveted Aoyama Music Award of Kyoto Baroque Saal.
Born in Osaka, Japan, and currently a resident of Tokyo, Mr. Takagi returns to Dallas frequently as concertmaster of the Dallas Chamber Symphony, since he established deep roots in the North Texas community while studying violin with Eduard Schmieder at Southern Methodist University. He is a graduate of the prestigious Deuxieme Academie de Musique Francaise de Kyoto where he was a pupil of Pierre Dukan, and the Conservatoire National Superieur in Lyon, France, where he was mentored by Yuko Mori and Eduard Wulfson. In addition to his solo and concertmaster duties, Mr. Takagi holds soloist positions with the Nagaokakyo Chamber Ensemble in Kyoto, Izumi Sinfonietta Osaka, and the alternative music group A Hundred Birds.
Mr. Takagi’s solo recordings with the Osaka Philharmonic are widely distributed on the Naxos label. His most recent album features the twentieth-century works of composer Hiroshi Ohguri.
Kazuhiro joined iPalpiti in 1995, and was featured as a soloist in 1996 in Dallas and in 1999 at the iPalpiti Festival in Los Angeles. As a distinguished alumnus, he returns this season as a soloist with iPalpiti at Soka Performing Arts Center (Los Angeles) and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.