Winner of the 2019 GRAMMY Award for Best Chamber Music/ Small Ensemble
Performance, violinist
Keiko Tokunaga spends most of her days touring
and performing globally as a soloist and chamber musician. Keiko has
been praised by the
Strings Magazine for possessing a sound “with
probing quality that is supple and airborne” and for her “pure, pellucid
bow strokes”. She has soloed with various orchestras including the
Spanish National Orchestra, Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional
de Catalunya and Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Orchestra.
In 2021, Keiko founded an online concert series, Jukebox Concerts, in
order to provide artistic outlets for musicians who lost their
engagements due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The performances were made
available not only to the subscribers, but also to residents of nursing
homes, hospitals and assisted living facilities across the country.
Later in the year, she created INTERWOVEN, a multi-cultural ensemble
whose mission is to eliminate discrimination against the AAAPI (Asians,
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) community by integrating the
musical traditions of the East and West.
While Keiko played with the internationally acclaimed Attacca Quartet
between 2005 and 2019, the ensemble won numerous prestigious awards
including the GRAMMY Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance; First
Prize of the 7th Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in 2011;
the Third Prize and the Australian Broadcast Corporation Classic FM
Listener’s Choice Award of the 6th Melbourne International Chamber Music
Competition in 2011.
Keiko is currently on faculty at Fordham University. Between 2008 and
2019, she taught at The Juilliard School Pre-College Division. She plays
on a J. B. Vuillaume violin from 1845, generously loaned by an anonymous
donor. She also enjoys playing on a Baroque-style violin made by Antonio
Mariani, circa 1669, formerly in the collection of Gabriel Schaff. Her
bow was made by Nicolas Maire circa 1850. She has performed at the SLLMF
since 2016.
[2023]