Raised in Portland, Oregon, Megumi started playing the violin at age three. She has soloed with orchestras throughout the US and Japan, and has toured with ensembles throughout Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. Now residing in Boston, she is a co-founder of A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra, has been a guest with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, the Radius Ensemble, the Boston Pops, and plays regularly with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Odyssey Opera, and the Sheffield Chamber Players. Starting in 2008, Megumi picked up the baroque violin and quickly fell for the gut strings and a variety of period bows. This love has led to performances with Boston Baroque, the Handel and Haydn Society, Les Bostonades, and the formation of Antico Moderno, a period instrument ensemble actively commissioning contemporary works. She also loves to fiddle and play rock and has regularly toured with Britain’s Jethro Tull. In the summers, Megumi can be found in Oregon wine country playing at the Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival. Megumi’s primary influences include her teachers Kathryn Gray and Bette Boyer in Portland, Lucy Chapman at the New England Conservatory and Camilla Wicks and Ian Swensen at the San Francisco Conservatory. Especially in chamber music and period performance, Roger Tapping, Martha Katz, Phoebe Carrai, Manfredo Kraemer, and Mark Sokol have been significant mentors.
Photo credit: Rachel Hadiashar