Violinist
Yuuko Shiokawa was one of the first generation of world-class instrumentalists to emerge from Japan in the decades after World War II. She has an impressive career as a soloist and as a chamber musician, performing primarily with her husband,
András Schiff.
Yuuko (or Yuko)
Shiokawa was born in Tokyo on June 1, 1946, and took up the violin at age five. Her family moved to Lima, Peru, in 1958, and
Shiokawa both began performing there and continued her studies with local violinst Eugen Cremer.
Shiokawa moved to Munich, Germany, in 1961 for studies with Wilhelm Stross, quickly distinguishing herself with a first prize in a German music conservatories competition when she was 19. She went on to work with the famed chamber musician
Sandor Végh, and since then her career has emphasized chamber music and solo music-making equally.
In 1963,
Shiokawa made high-profile concerto appearances with the
Berlin Philharmonic under
Herbert von Karajan and with the
Bavarian Radio Symphony under
Rafael Kubelik. She went on to perform with the Berliners in Salzburg, Austria, and in Japan, becoming a familiar figure on world orchestral stages.
Shiokawa has appeared with the
Israel Philharmonic, the
London Symphony Orchestra, the
New York Philharmonic, the
Pittsburgh Symphony, and the
Boston Symphony. In 2008 she recorded Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin for the Camerata label.
Shiokawa is perhaps best known as a chamber musician. She and
Schiff have made numerous recordings, beginning with a group of
Haydn piano trios (with cellist
Boris Pergamenschikow) on Decca in the late '90s, plus trios by Mozart and Schubert with cellist
Miklós Perényi on Teldec later in the decade.
Shiokawa and
Schiff have released two highly regarded albums of violin-and-keyboard works on the prestigious
ECM label, one, in 2000, featuring
Schubert's Fantasia for violin and piano, D. 934, and one with works by
Bach, Beethoven, and Busoni in 2017.