{"id":387711,"date":"2025-06-11T12:51:05","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T18:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/?p=387711"},"modified":"2025-06-11T12:56:26","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T18:56:26","slug":"anne-akiko-meyers-musical-adventurer-champion-of-new-music-and-living-composers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/anne-akiko-meyers-musical-adventurer-champion-of-new-music-and-living-composers\/","title":{"rendered":"Anne Akiko Meyers: Musical Adventurer, Champion of New Music and Living Composers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interview by Kyle Macmillan<\/em><\/p>\n

Anne Akiko Meyers<\/strong> has bucked convention and embraced all things new on an ever-adventurous path that has gained her international acclaim.<\/p>\n

The 55-year-old American violinist has championed under-recognized masterworks from the past like Samuel Barber\u2019s Violin Concerto (1939) and has premiered dozens of works by composers like Arvo P\u00e4rt and Mason Bates \u2013 enough that she has lost count.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always really thrived on working with living composers,\u201d Meyers said. \u201cIt came from always wondering: \u2018What would the composer say if I could play this for them?\u2019 And there is such a freedom to hear directly from their mouths.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado Music Festival Welcomes a Bold Collaborator<\/h3>\n

This risk-taking spirit makes her an ideal match for the Colorado Music Festival, which has put a renewed emphasis on world premieres like Joan Tower\u2019s cello concerto<\/a>, A New Day<\/em>, and overlooked offerings under Peter Oundjian<\/a>, who has served as its music director since 2019.<\/p>\n

Meyers will join Oundjian and the Festival orchestra July 17<\/a> and 18<\/a> for a pair of works from the present and past: Eric Whitacre\u2019s <\/span>The Pacific Has No Memory<\/span><\/i> and Maurice Ravel\u2019s <\/span>Tzigane, <\/span><\/i>a popular 1924 showpiece that runs about 10 minutes. (Also on the program are Berlioz\u2019s <\/span>B\u00e9atrice and B\u00e9n\u00e9dict <\/span><\/i>Overture and Tchaikovsky\u2019s <\/span>Romeo and Juliet<\/span><\/i> Fantasy Overture.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Other than a Sept. 2 appearance at the Hollywood Bowl, these will be Meyers\u2019 only concerts of the summer, a time each year when she likes to regroup and relax after a non-stop fall-to-spring schedule.<\/strong><\/p>\n

She has worked with Oundjian twice before \u2013 a 2010 tour of Holland and Belgium with the Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam featuring Leonard Bernstein\u2019s Serenade<\/em>, after Plato’s Symposium (1954) and a 2004 set of concerts with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.<\/p>\n

The Story Behind The Pacific Has No Memory<\/em><\/h3>\n

She has worked with Oundjian twice before \u2013 a 2010 tour of Holland and Belgium with the Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam featuring Leonard Bernstein\u2019s <\/span>Serenade, after Plato’s Symposium<\/span><\/i> (1954) and a 2024 set of concerts with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since 2014, Meyers has been fascinated with the music of Whitacre, an artist in residence with the Los Angeles Master Chorale. The Grammy Award-winning composer is best known for his groundbreaking virtual choirs, which have brought together 100,000 singers from more than 145 countries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI approached him,\u201d she said, \u201cand I was just so curious if he would consider writing something for the violin, because his work is so haunting and lyrical and beautiful and so exquisite.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The resulting seven-minute piece, which Meyers describes as a kind of musical reflection, was co-commissioned by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Colorado Music Festival. The premiere took place on May 17 at New York\u2019s Zankel Hall.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The catalyst that led Whitacre to write <\/span>The Pacific Has No Memory<\/span><\/i> was the awful January wildfires that destroyed large parts of the Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods in Los Angeles, including the homes of some of his friends, as well as a narrative thread in the movie, <\/span>The<\/span><\/i> Shawshank Redemption.<\/span><\/i> The lead character dreams of meeting a fellow prison inmate on a remote beach in Mexico, where the Pacific Ocean will wash away their pain and suffering and the two can start anew. \u201cYou really feel these waves within the music \u2013 gentle waves and then pain,\u201d Meyers said.<\/span><\/p>\n

She feels particularly close to this work because her family was displaced from their damaged home in the Palisades and has not been able to return. \u201cIt makes me very emotional to play,\u201d the violinist said, \u201cbecause it\u2019s constantly rolling through the head just how much everyone has gone through here and the loss of community and how everything is just basically washed away. But, then, there are glimmers of new beginnings from all of the destruction.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

From Prodigy to Pop Culture: Meyers\u2019 Unexpected Journey<\/h3>\n

Far from such darkness was the bright beginning of the violinist\u2019s career. Something of a child prodigy, Meyers performed twice on <\/span>The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson <\/span><\/i>at age 11 and 12 and began touring and recording after signing when she was 16 with ICM Artists, a highly prominent agency at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

From the start, she never followed a traditional, buttoned-up classical career path. Besides performing with artists outside the field like pop singer Michael Bolton and jazz trumpeter Chris Botti, she has been featured in television commercials and ad campaigns for brands such as Anne Klein, Northwest Airlines, and TDK.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re fun. It\u2019s different. Why not?\u201d Meyers said, laughing. Plus, those appearances helped her pay for a \u201cnice [violin] bow.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Anne and the Power of New Commissions<\/h3>\n

The violinist has been involved in new-music projects almost from the start, and they just keep rolling out. In 2018, for example, she approached Mexican composer Arturo M\u00e1rquez, and he wrote a mariachi-inspired concerto for her titled <\/span>Fandango<\/span><\/i> that premiered in 2021 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and its music director Gustavo Dudamel.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a matter of asking these composers,\u201d Meyers said. \u201cThey\u2019re walking amongst us, these [Franz] Schuberts like John Corigliano and these great masters. They have so much musical poetry within their minds and hearts.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She and the LA Philharmonic made a live recording of <\/span>Fandango<\/span><\/i> in 2022 that won two Latin Grammy Awards for best classical album and best contemporary album. Since its debut, Meyer has gone on to perform it with 16 orchestras around the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so rare for a brand-new concerto that was just born in 2021 to be performed over 40 times now, and there are many more opportunities where people want to hear that concerto because the music is amazing,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Beloved: Anne Akiko Meyers\u2019 Latest Album of Premieres<\/h3>\n

Beloved<\/span><\/i>, her 41<\/span>st<\/span> and most recent album, was released on May 9. It features the world-premiere recordings of Billy Childs\u2019\u00a0<\/span>In the Arms of the\u00a0Beloved<\/span><\/i>, Whitacre\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Seal Lullaby,<\/span><\/i> and Ola Gjeilo\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Serenity<\/span><\/i>. All the selections feature the Los Angeles Master Chorale, conducted by Grant Gershon.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat just makes me so happy, to release music like that,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat story are these composers coming up with that I can sink my teeth into and share with audiences? It\u2019s really kind of a personal choice of what I want to premiere, perform, and record, and it becomes a very rewarding process to work with all these composers, music directors, and orchestras.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And Whitacre\u2019s <\/span>The Pacific Has No Memory<\/span><\/i> will give Colorado Music Festival audiences an up-close look<\/a> exactly what she is talking about.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Colorado Music Festival hosts Anne Akiko Meyers on Thursday, July 17 and Friday, July 18. <\/strong><\/p>\n

For Festival details & tickets >\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interview by Kyle Macmillan Anne Akiko Meyers has bucked convention and embraced all things new on an ever-adventurous path that has gained her international acclaim. The 55-year-old American violinist has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":387713,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[382],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-387711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}