Akemi Takayama is an associate professor at Shenandoah Conservatory, where she holds the Victor Brown Endowed Chair in Violin. Since 2004, she has also been serving as the concertmaster of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and since 2007, she has also serving concertmaster for Williamsburg Symphonia. A native of Japan, Takayama’s professional violin career began in Japan at the age of fifteen. She has performed throughout Japan, France and the United States; recent symphony collaborations in Virginia include the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, Opera Roanoke, Shenandoah Performs, the Chamber Orchestra of Southwest Virginia and Williamsburg Symphonia. Takayama was a member of the internationally renowned Audubon Quartet for fourteen years while the group toured regionally and nationally. Recent solo performances with orchestras include Daugherty's Fire and Blood and Ladder to the Moon, Mendelssohn's Double Concerto, Vivaldi s The Four Seasons, Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos, Pärt's Fratres, Beethoven's Violin Concerto and Triple Concerto, Brahms's Double Concerto for violin and cello, Mozart s Violin Concerto, Roskott’s Violin Concerto and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Double Concerto.
Acclaimed by Isaac Stern as a true musician, she was invited to the Marlboro Music Festival and has served on the faculties of the Chautauqua Institute in New York, the Idyllwild School for the Arts in California, the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina, Shenandoah Performs in Virginia and at Virginia Tech. Takayama is active as an educator and arts advocate throughout Virginia and has been serving as a chair for College Advisory Committee for Virginia String Teacher’s Association.
Countless of her violin students have active performing careers in chamber music, orchestras, country music and CD recordings. Many are accepted or went on to continue for their Master of Music or Doctor of Musical Arts studies at schools such as Indiana University, Boston Conservatory, Oberlin, Florida State University, Case Western Reserve University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, East Carolina University and the Catholic University of America. Many have performing careers including the following as a core members or a per gig basis: Three Notch’d Road: the Charlottesville Baroque Ensemble, Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, Two Rivers Chamber Orchestra, Loudoun Symphony Orchestra, Prince William Symphony Orchestra, Washington Bach Consort and the Duke Vespers Ensemble and Nathin’Fancy, LLC. Their performing venues include Boston Early Music Festival Fringe Concerts, Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia, Shenandoah University’s Bach-Handel Festival, Tuesday Concert Series at the Church of the Epiphany in Washington, D.C., the Columbian Consort at George Washington University and Roanoke Symphony. Some have gone to teaching in jobs such as Princeton Shenzhen International Children’s Learning Center Education (Shenzhen, China), MusicKidsProgram Company (Manassas, Virginia), Suzuki Violin Teacher at Community School of the Arts (Charlotte, North Carolina) and International School of music Company (Bethesda, Maryland).
Ongoing projects include the All Beethoven Sonata Duo with renowned pianist John O’Conor, recording with Centaur Records and an association with the New Orchestra of Washington.
During her graduate studies, Takayama was a teaching assistant to the renowned Donald Weilerstein at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she earned both an Artist Diploma and a Master of Music. Previously she studied with Toshiya Eto and Ryosaku Kubota at the Toho School of Music in Tokyo, where she earned her bachelor's degree in music performance and with Brian Hanly at the University of Wyoming, where she earned her professional studies degree.
Her recordings with the Audubon Quartet are on the Centaur and Composers Recordings labels. Her solo recordings are found on Blackwater Recording.
Ms. Takayama plays a J.B. Ceruti violin from Cremona, Italy, made in 1805. In the fall of 2012, she has served as a faculty at Oberlin Conservatory. Ms. Takayama has served as a judge for Music Teachers National Association, Virginia String Teacher’s Association and the Violin Society of America, among others.