Hiro Kurosaki
baroque violin
Vivaldi Violin Velocity

Hiro Kurosaki was born in Tokyo. At the age of six he moved with his family to Vienna, where he grew up. Currently he lives in Valencia, Spain.

He studied the violin, graduating cum laude under Prof. Franz Samohyl in Vienna at the “Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst“, formerly the Vienna Academy of Music, and attended master classes with Nathan Milstein. He also studied architecture and art history at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts.

Hiro Kurosaki has won prizes at two of the most prestigious violin competitions, the “Henryk Wieniawski“ competition in Poland and the “Fritz Kreisler“ in Vienna.He has performed with such well known orchestras as the Royal Philharmonic, London; the Staatskapelle Dresden; the Vienna Symphonic, and the Mozarteum Orchestra, Salzburg.

For many years now he has been working intensively on the baroque violin and the historic performance practice of early music, studying with Michi Gaigg, Ingrid Seifert and Wieland Kuijken.

In the meantime he has been closely associated with Rene Clemencic (Clemencic Consort) and William Christie (Les Arts Florissants). As a result, is the soloist and concert master of the ensembles “Les Arts Florissants“, Paris; “Clemencic Consort“, Vienna; “London Baroque“; the “Ensemble Gradiva“, Paris; and the “Cappella Coloniensis“, Cologne, in concerts throughout Europe as well as on regular concert tours of Japan, America and Australia.

Hiro Kurosaki has performed at the most renowned international festivals and has made many recordings with the ensembles mentioned. A grand concert tour of recitals with William Christie at the harpsichord took the two musicians to the most important concert halls in Europe in January 2003, when a recording of Handel’s violin sonatas (Hiro Kurosaki and William Christie) was issued by EMI/Virgin Classics. As lecturer for baroque violin and historical performance practice Hiro Kurosaki has supported and educated young musical talents for many years.

Interpretation workshops with Mozarteum Orchestra, Salzburg, and the Bavarian State Opera, as well as his participation in important congresses such as the “Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber Congress“ in Salzburg, clearly show Hiro Kurosaki’s efforts to pass on his knowledge of the style of violin playing from each era, and to build a bridge between “modern“ and “baroque“ musicians. Hiro Kurosaki is convinced that a deep insight into the aesthetics and performance techniques of different ages is basic to achieving an interpretation that is satisfactory – because it can be experienced immediately by both the player and the listener.