Born in Tokyo, violinist Karen Gomyo grew up in Montreal and New York. Recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2008, she has been hailed by the Chicago Tribune as "a first-rate artist of real musical command, vitality, brilliance and intensity" and described by the Cleveland Plain Dealer as "captivating, honest and soulful, fueled by abundant talent but not a vain display of technique."
Gomyo has performed as soloist with such orchestras as the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, San Francisco, Saint Louis, Cincinnati, Houston, Dallas, Indianapolis, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver Symphonies, and the National Symphony of Washington D.C. In Europe she has performed with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lille, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Norwegian Opera Orchestra, and Den Haag Residentie Orkest, among others. She has worked with such conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Neeme Järvi, Andrew Litton, David Robertson, David Zinman, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Andrey Boreyko, Hans Graf, Louis Langrée, James Gaffigan, and Robin Ticciati.
In recital and chamber music, Gomyo has performed in festivals in the US, Japan, Austria, Germany, France, Norway, and Holland, with such artists as Heinrich Schiff, Lynn Harrell, Alisa Weilerstein, Christian Poltéra, Isabelle van Keulen, Antoine Tamestit, Frank Braley, Anton Kuerti, and Alessio Bax.
Highlights in 2011/2012 include debuts with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfonica de Asturias, Malmö Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Sydney Symphony, Hong-Kong Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, and Malaysia Philharmonic, as well as return visits to the Baltimore, Dallas, Toronto, Indianapolis, Norrköping, Helsingborg Symphonies, and the Norwegian Opera Orchestra. In chamber music and recitals, she will be appearing in Germany, Ukraine, Norway, Holland, Italy, Japan, and Canada.
In addition to her solo and chamber music activities, Karen Gomyo is part of a unique duo project with tango-jazz legend, pianist Pablo Ziegler, presenting a program that portrays the unique relationship between the classical and tango/tango-jazz music worlds, linked through the music of Astor Piazzolla and Pablo Ziegler himself.
In September 2008 Gomyo performed at the First Symposium for the Victims of Terrorism held at the headquarters of United Nations in New York. In May 2009 she joined the New York Philharmonic in a special Memorial Day concert at the Cathedral Church of St-John the Divine. In 2011 she will co-organize and host a benefit concert in an effort to help support the multiple causes she has been supporting since 2004.
Karen Gomyo plays on a Stradivarius violin that was bought for her exclusive use by a private sponsor.
