BIO

Chiharu Taki studied at the Toho Girls' Senior High School of Music before completing her training at the Zurich

University of the Arts and the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin, under Reiko Ueno, Akiko Tatsumi, Zakhar Bron, and

Sasha Gavrilov.

She has built an outstanding international competition record, including First Prize at the Novosibirsk International Violin

Competition, First Prize at the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition, and Third Prize at the David Oistrakh

International Competition. Taki began performing professionally while still in high school, establishing herself through a

debut CD, solo recitals, and collaborations with major orchestras in Japan and abroad.

She has performed under celebrated conductors including Seiji Ozawa, Hubert Soudant, and Gerd Albrecht. In 2010 she

performed with pianist Haruko Ueda at the Salle Gaveau in Paris. In 2012 she toured Europe as concertmaster of the

Animato Orchestra, and in 2015 she appeared with the Neue Berliner Philharmonie at the Berlin Philharmonie. From 2015

to 2017 she served as an artist for Pictet Asset Management's “Patronage Project.”

In 2018, marking the tenth anniversary of her debut, she conceived and performed an all-Prokofiev program, which was so

well received that it was reprised the following year at the Musica Nigella Festival in France. In 2020, to commemorate the

250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, she undertook a livestreamed cycle of the complete violin sonatas. In 2021 she

appeared at Tokyo Opera City's “B→C” series, drawing attention for the largest-scale mix of collaborators, instruments,

and genres in the series' history.

Her recent work continues to be internationally minded and boundary-pushing. In 2022 she performed at the Far Eastern

Classic Music Festival in Budapest. In 2023 she released the album PROKOFIEV STORY, which was selected as a

Recommended Recording by Record Geijutsu and placed second in the Chamber Music category of the ONTOMO

MOOK Record Academy Award. That December, in partnership with Miyaji Musical Instruments Hall, she led her own

self-produced project, “12-toneS,” to great success.

In 2025 she returned to the Musica Nigella Festival and, that April, founded the general incorporated association ArDe.

The same year she released her second album, Schnittke CLOWNS, which was named a Recommended Recording by

Record Geijutsu ONLINE in January 2026. She also launched “MaNGROVE,” a new project with jazz composer Miho

Hazama, taking it on a nationwide tour that included Blue Note Tokyo to widespread acclaim. An album collaboration

with composer Fumio Yasuda is also planned for release.

As Artistic Director, Taki launched the Daikanyama art festival “BLOOM Festival” in March 2026, aiming to spread the

idea of “art as part of everyday life” and broaden her engagement with society. She continues to take on new challenges in

contemporary music, receiving dedications and commissions from leading Japanese composers including Yui Kakinuma,

Miho Hazama, Yuri Umemoto, Akiko Yamane, Yuhaku Nemoto, and Fumio Yasuda.

Pursuing a distinctive voice that crosses genre boundaries, Taki works not only as a violinist but as an artist, producer, and

curator across a range of creative fields.