The youngest ever winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition, Akiko Suwanai enjoys a prestigious international career performing in concerts and recitals in the major cities of Europe, North America and Asia. Suwanai works regularly with Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Bamberger Symphoniker, City of Birmingham, and NHK Symphony orchestras. Suwanai recently toured with the NDR Sinfonieorchester (with Christoph von Dohnányi), London Symphony (with Valerie Gergiev), Czech Philharmonic (with Claus Peter Flor), and Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Orhcestre de Paris (both with Paavo Järvi).

Conductor collaborations include such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Andrew Davis, Lorin Maazel, David Robertson, Susanna Mälkki, Neeme Järvi and Seiji Ozawa.

In 2012-2013 season Suwanai performs with, Philharmonia Orchestra, WDR Rundfunkorchester, Sevilla Symphony, and NHK Symphony. Further highlights include a European tour with Orchestre National de Belgique (with Andrey Boreyko), Japan tours with Philharmonia Orchestra (with Essa-Pekka Salonen) and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse (with Tugan Sokhiev). In winter 2013, Suwanai launches a new music festival in Japan, International Music Festival NIPPON, as the Artistic Director. The festival includes her performance of a new work by Essa-Pekka Salonen with Philharmonia Orchestra, recitals with Leif Ove Andsnes, Pieter Wispelwey and Akira Eguchi, and master classes.

Suwanai recently gave the world premiere of Peter Eötvös's composition Seven at the Lucerne Festival with the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra under the baton of Pierre Boulez. Further performances with Eötvös himself conducting included concerts in Gothenburg, Budapest, Berlin, Tokyo, Toronto and at the BBC Proms.

Akiko Suwanai’s extensive discography with Universal Music has garnered much critical acclaim. Her most recent release is a recital disc entitled “Emotion” with pianist Itamar Golan. Other releases to date include CDs with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields under Neville Marriner, the Philharmonia Orchestra under Charles Dutoit, a Slavonic album with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer, a CD of Bach Concertos with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, as well as a recital disc of Beethoven Sonatas with Nicholas Angelich.

Akiko Suwanai has won numerous prizes and awards such as the International Paganini Competition in Italy, the International Japan Competition and the Queen Elisabeth International Competition in Belgium. She studied at the Toho Gakuen School of Music with Toshiya Eto, at Columbia University and the Juilliard School of Music with Dorothy DeLay and Cho-Liang Lin, and also at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin with Uwe-Martin Haiberg. She now lives in Paris.

Akiko Suwanai performs on the Antonio Stradivarius 1714 violin ‘Dolphin’, one of the most famous violins known today and previously owned by the celebrated violinist Jascha Heifetz. This is kindly loaned by the Nippon Music Foundation.