Mayu Kishima

Mayu Kishima is a Japanese violinist born (in Kobe, Japan) on December 13, 1986.  She is known for having won one of the largest (if not the largest) monetary prizes in a violin competition – the Isaac Stern Violin Competition in Shanghai awarded her a first prize of $100,000 in 2016.  That was a competition that she almost decided not to enter until the last minute.  Kishima began her violin studies in Tokyo at age 3 and has had quite a number of teachers during her career, including Izumi Hayashi, Kazuyo Togami, Toshiya Eto, Dorothy DeLay, Masao Kawasaki, Machi Oguri, Chihiro Kudo, and Zakhar Bron (with whom she began studying at age 13.)  She graduated from the Advanced School for Music in Cologne in 2012.  She was 26 years old.  By then however, she had already established herself as a concert artist, having begun her professional career in the year 2000 at age 14.  Kishima made her first studio recording in 2003 with the NHK Symphony.  Needless to say, she has played all over the world with some of the finest orchestras and conductors.  Among the violins she has played are a 1779 G.B. Guadagnini and a Stradivarius from 1700.  Here is one of many YouTube videos posted of her performances.  Here is another.