Koichiro Harada

Born in 1945, Koichiro Harada studied violin, chamber music, and conducting at the Toho Gakuen School of Music and the Juilliard School under Hideo Saito, Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Dorothy DeLay, and Ivan Galamian. In 1969, Mr. Harada founded the renowned Tokyo String Quartet, in which he played first violin for 12 years. Highly acclaimed for his talent, technique, and musicality, he later began teaching overseas at major music learning centers including the Cleveland Conservatory and Aspen Music Festival.

Mr. Harada returned to Tokyo in 1983 and went on to form several other notable chamber music ensembles, among them NADA and Mito Quartet. He has performed at numerous music festivals, including Aspen Music Festival, Nagano-Aspen Music Festival, the Ishikawa Music Academy, and Kurashiki Music Festival.

Also an acclaimed conductor, Koichiro Harada often appears with the New Japan Philharmonic, Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra, Sapporo Symphony Orchestra, Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, Kyushu Symphony Orchestra, and Kioi Sinfonietta, Tokyo, among many others.

In addition to his concert activities, Mr. Harada is a professor at the Toho Gakuen School of Music and has been invited to serve as a jury member for many international competitions: Concours Music International Reine Elisabeth de Belgique, International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, Concorso Internazionale Di Violino Premio N. Paganini, and Concours International de Violin Henryk Wieniawski. In 2005, he was president of the jury of the Concours International Long-Thibaud.