Karen Gomyo

Violin

Biography

Karen Gomyo, “a first-rate artist of real musical command, vitality, brilliance and intensity.” (The Chicago Tribune), possesses a rare ability to captivate and connect intimately with audiences through her deeply emotional and heartfelt performances. With a flawless command of the instrument and an elegance of expression, she is one of today’s leading violinists.

Karen’s 2023/24 season engagements include her debuts with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig with Semyon Bychkov; and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland with Lio Kuokman. She also appears with the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg with Constantinos Carydis, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra with John Storgårds, Gulbenkian Orchestra with Giancarlo Guerrero, Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao with composer/conductor Samy Moussa, and the Vancouver Symphony with Gerard Schwarz. In February 2024, Karen will return to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for the world premiere of Year 2020, a Concerto for Trumpet, Violin and Orchestra by Xi Wang, with trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth and conductor Fabio Luisi. Together with conductor Jakub Hrůša, with whom she collaborates regularly, Karen will return to Japan to perform with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.

Further afield, Karen continues to be sought after in Australasia, and will be touring the region in August and September 2024, returning to the Singapore, Melbourne, Sydney, Tasmanian and West Australian symphony orchestras.

Highlights of recent seasons include Karen’s subscription debuts with the New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Orquesta Nacional de España, the Czech Philharmonic and Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Karen also returned to the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel at the Hollywood Bowl, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris under Mikko Franck and the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln with Cristian Macelaru.

As a passionate chamber musician, Karen has had the pleasure of performing with artists such as Olli Mustonen, Leif Ove Andsnes, Enrico Pace, James Ehnes, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Daishin Kashimoto, Emmanuel Pahud, Julian Steckel, the late Heinrich Schiff, mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, and guitarist Ismo Eskelinen with whom she has recorded the duo album Carnival on Bis Records.

She is also a champion of the Nuevo Tango music of Astor Piazzolla. She regularly collaborates with Piazzolla’s long-time pianist and tango legend, Pablo Ziegler, as well as with bandoneon players, Hector del Curto, JP Jofre, and Marcelo Nisinman. In 2021 Karen released A Piazzolla Triology (BIS Records), recorded with the Strings of Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and guitarist Stephanie Jones.

Renowned for her commitment to commissioning new repertoire, Karen has given the US premieres of Samy Moussa’s Violin Concerto ‘Adrano’ with the Pittsburgh Symphony – and Matthias Pintscher’s Concerto No. 2 ‘Mar’eh’ with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington under the baton of the composer. In May 2018, she performed the world premiere of Samuel Adams’ new Chamber Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen, a work written specifically for Karen and commissioned by the CSO’s ‘Music Now’ series for their 20th anniversary.

Born in Tokyo, Karen began her musical career in Montréal and New York, She studied under the legendary pedagogue Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School before continuing her studies at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and New England Conservatory. Karen also participated as violinist, host, and narrator in a documentary film produced by NHK Japan about Antonio Stradivarius called The Mysteries of the Supreme Violin, which was broadcast worldwide on NHK WORLD.

Reviews

“Deeply serious, temperamental and just plain gorgeous… always with a clear sense of the music’s rhythmic pulse and sonic perspectives.”

Toronto Globe & Mail

“The soloist, Karen Gomyo, making her Philharmonic subscription series debut, conveyed with richly warm and textured sound the ruminative quality of a lyrical line that keeps trying to take clear shape. Yet Gomyo pressed below the surface to suggest that this music was not simply sad, but truly grief-stricken.

A noble yet still dark Passacaglia slow movement leads to a vehement cadenza, and then a Burlesque finale. Here the bitter, almost hostile, ironic Shostakovich seems to come through in episodes of blaring fanfares and faux-triumphant marches. The orchestra captured it with brilliant sharpness, and Gomyo was extraordinary, dispatching the tangle of technical challenges with fervor and command.”

Anthony Tommasini

The New York Times

“Karen Gomyo, making a spectacular debut with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, managed it triumphantly.

The opening lament poured out of her in an unbroken wave of controlled energy, concentrated and intense, and she pirouetted her way through the ghoulish jig of the Scherzo as though performing a high-wire act. Her cadenza, coming out of darkly controlled Passacaglia, was unblinkingly focused, leading into a finale of white hot mania.”

The Times