Miwako Abe

Miwako Abe’s career began with violin study from the age of five. After training at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo with Toshiya Eto and Hideo Saito, she became a prize-winning graduate of the Guildhall School of Music in London, where her teachers included Yfrah Neaman and William Pleeth. Selection for a BBC Television masterclass with Yehudi Menuhin marked her early mastery, and the Boise Foundation Scholarship took her on to the Salzburg Mozarteum, where she assisted the violinist-conductor Sándor Végh. Her London debut at Wigmore Hall drew strong praise in The Times and The Daily Telegraph.

As soloist and chamber musician she has built a reputation across five continents. In England she played with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields and the English Chamber Orchestra, and she has appeared as concerto soloist and in chamber music in Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Poland, the Czech Republic, Japan, Israel, Jordan, Taiwan, Turkey, India, New Zealand, and the United States. Festival appearances include Salzburg, Festival de Otoño, Ankara, and the Adelaide, Perth, and Melbourne international festivals.

Since coming to Australia in 1982 she has performed with the Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras, the Sydney String Quartet, the Australia Ensemble, the Australian Chamber Soloists, Flederman, Pipeline, and Soloists of Australia. In the Austral Trio—violin, flute, and guitar—she toured widely for the ABC, the Department of Foreign Affairs, and Musica Viva, at home and abroad.

A frequent presence on ABC Classic FM and overseas networks, she has worked in broadcast, recording, and recital with associates including Ian Munro, Stephen McIntyre, Frank Wibaut, Roy Howat, and Michael Kieran Harvey. A New World Records disc of American contemporary works drew acclaim in Gramophone. Australian composers including Larry Sitsky, Nigel Westlake, Wendy Hiscocks, Laurence Whiffin, and Julian Yu have written and dedicated new violin works to her.

She is regarded as an outstanding performer and a highly successful violin teacher, serving as Associate Professor of Music and Head of the String Department at the Victorian College of the Arts and teaching at the Australian National Academy of Music. Many of her students have become professional musicians in Europe, the United States, and Australia, and she continues to be invited for recitals and masterclasses at universities and conservatoria at home and overseas.