OLE AKAHOSHI
Guest Artist
Recently hailed by the Los Angeles Times for his “technical solidity, perfect intonation, and large edgeless tone of buttered-rum quality”, cellist Ole Akahoshi from Germany has concertized on four continents in recitals as well as soloist with orchestras, such as the Orchestra of St. Luke’s under the direction of Yehudi Menuhin, Symphonisches Orchester Berlin, and the Czechoslovakian Radio Orchestra.
Winner of numerous competitions including the Concertino Praga, Jugend Musiziert, and the Luis Sigall International Cello Competition, Mr. Akahoshi’s performances have been featured on CNN, NPR, Sender-Freies-Berlin, RIAS-Berlin, Hessischer Rundfunk, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Korean Broadcasting Station, and WQXR. He is also a recipient of the generous fellowship award from Charlotte White’s Salon de Virtuosi.
Mr. Akahoshi has performed in Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Suntory Hall and Tsuda Hall in Tokyo, Seoul Arts Center in Korea, Wigmore Hall in London, Berliner Philharmonie. He has made recordings for the Albany, New World Records, Composers Recording Inc., Calliope, Bridge, and Naxos Labels. Mr. Akahoshi has collaborated with the Tokyo String Quartet, Sarah Chang, Erick Friedman, Cho-Liang Lin, Gil Shaham, Joel Smirnoff, Chee-Yun, Toby Appel, Jesse Levine, Edgar Meyer, Boris Berman, Leon Fleisher, Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, Garrick Ohlsson, Elizabeth Sawyer Parisot, Frank Morelli, Ransom Wilson, Myung Wha Chung, Aldo Parisot, Janos Starker, Vienna Philharmonic principal flutist Wolfgang Schultz and principal violist Heinz Koll, and harpist Naoko Yoshino.
He has served as faculty at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Camp Encore/Coda, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Festival des Artes de Itu Brazil, and at the Great Mountains Music Festival in Korea, where he gives classes every summer.
Mr. Akahoshi received his Bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School and his Master’s degree from Yale University as a student of Aldo Parisot. He also received an Artist Diploma from Indiana University where he studied with Janos Starker. Mr. Akahoshi has served as teaching assistant for both Aldo Parisot and Janos Starker. At age eleven he was the youngest student to be accepted by the late Pierre Fournier. His other mentors include Wolfgang Boettcher and Georg Donderer.
Mr. Akahoshi is the principal cellist of the International Sejong Soloists in New York. He is also a member of Seiji Ozawa’s prestigious Saito Kinen Orchestra and the Tokyo Nomori Opera. Mr. Akahoshi joined the faculty of the Yale University School of Music in 1997.