Anne Akiko Meyers (born May 15, 1970, in San Diego[1]) is a GRAMMY® Award winner, and one of the world's most esteemed and celebrated violinists. Renowned as a muse and champion of today's leading composers, she has commissioned, premiered, and recorded a significant body of contemporary violin repertoire. Described by The Strad as “the Wonder Woman of commissioning,"[2] Meyers has premiered works by leading composers such as Arturo Márquez, Arvo Pärt, John Corigliano, Eric Whitacre, Mason Bates, Billy Childs, Wynton Marsalis, Morten Lauridsen, Michael Daugherty, Einojuhani Rautavaara, and Philip Glass, among others. Since her teens, Anne has performed around the world as soloist with leading orchestras, in recital and recorded more than 40 releases, which have become staples of classical music radio and streaming platforms.
In 2025, Meyers released three albums that underscore her deep engagement with contemporary music: Blue Electra, Beloved, and Philip Glass: Violin Concerto No. 1. The Glass album includes a performance with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the world-premiere recording of New Chaconne written for her, and Echorus. Beloved features world premieres by Billy Childs, Eric Whitacre, and Ola Gjeilo with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and Blue Electra centers on Michael Daugherty’s Earhart-inspired violin concerto. These projects earned her the Gramophone magazine July 2025 cover story, which described her “relentless quest for discovery” as a defining feature of her career, most notably through “her bold commissioning of works from composers who captivate her.”[3]
Her 2023 album Fandango, recorded live with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, won two Latin Grammy Awards for Best Classical Album and Best Contemporary Composition,[4] and also received two GRAMMY nominations.[5]
Meyers was the top-selling classical instrumentalist on Billboard’s traditional classical chart in 2014.[6] She appeared on NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series in 2023, served as Artistic Director of the 2024 Laguna Beach Music Festival, and was inducted into the 2024 Asian Hall of Fame.[7]
Early life and education
The daughter of an artist and a college president, Meyers was born in California. Her mother is of Japanese descent, and her father American. She was raised in Southern California, studied with Shirley Helmick, and then with Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld at the preparatory division of the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles. In 1980, the Thornton School of Music and its preparatory division ended their relationship, and the preparatory division moved locations and was renamed the Colburn School.
Meyers has lifetime use of the 1741 Vieuxtemps Guarneri "del Gesu".[10] She previously toured with a 1730 Stradivarius violin called the Royal Spanish,[11] and a 1697 Stradivarius called the Molitor Stradivarius.[12] In her recording of Bach's Concerto in D minor for Two Violins, BWV 1043, she plays both parts—one part on the "Royal Spanish" and the other on the "Molitor."[13]
The Engagements written by novelist J. Courtney Sullivan is loosely based on Meyers's career; it was one of People Magazine's Top 10 Books of the Year in 2014.[19] Meyers also played the violinist character, Violetta, in Crumpet the Trumpet by children's book author and illustrator, Kristine Papillon.[20] Meyers' recording of Einojuhani Rautavaara's Fantasia was the only classical instrumental work included by NPR in their list of 100 best songs of 2017.[21]
In 2024, she served as Artistic Director of the Laguna Beach Music Festival, a multi-day series of classical and contemporary concerts, community engagement programs, and dynamic special events.[23]
On September 30, 2014, Meyers released The American Masters, which includes two world premieres: Mason Bates's Violin Concerto and the Lullaby for Natalie by John Corigliano, written for the birth of her first-born daughter, Natalie. The album also includes Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto.[28][29]
In September 2015, Meyers released Serenade: The Love Album, her 34th album, featuring Leonard Bernstein's epic Serenade. Meyers commissioned seven arrangers including Adam Schoenberg, Brad Dechter, J.A.C. Redford and Steven Mercurio to arrange ten love-inspired works from classic movies and the American Songbook. The seven arrangers were chosen to resemble the seven philosophers of Plato's Symposium, which Bernstein's Serenade is based on. The album was recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra with Keith Lockhart conducting.[32]
Meyers performed the posthumous world premiere of Fantasia by Einojuhani Rautavaara, written for her, with the Kansas City Symphony conducted by Michael Stern in March 2017. Meyers met Rautavaara at his home in December 2015 to play the work for him. He died in July 2016 before its first public performance nearly a year later.[33]
Adam Schoenberg's first violin concerto, Orchard in Fog, written for Meyers, was premiered by her with the San Diego Symphony and conductor Sameer Patel in February 2018.[34] The Violin Channel live-streamed the performance.[35]
In May 2020, Meyers released the world premiere recording of Arvo Pärt's Estonian Lullaby for violin and piano, which was dedicated to her. She also released an accompanying animated watercolor video, produced in collaboration with Skazka Studios.[36]
Blue Electra was released on April 11, 2025, on Naxos, featuring Meyers performing with the Albany Symphony under the direction of David Alan Miller.[41]
On June 13, 2025, Meyers released Philip Glass: Violin Concerto No. 1 on Platoon, featuring a performance with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the world-premiere recording of New Chaconne, composed for her by Glass, and Echorus, performed with violinist Aubree Oliverson. In its review, Gramophone noted: “Meyers's violin announces itself confidently and assertively, setting the tone for the rest of the movement...Meyers's performance is imbued with expressive weight and power: Glass carved in the image of Mendelssohn and Bruch.”[42]
Billboard charts
Air – The Bach Album debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard charts on its release on February 14, 2012. It featured "Bach Double" played on two different Stradivarius violins.[43][44]
Meyers' performance of The Vivaldi Four Seasons Album debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard charts when released on February 14, 2014.[45]
In 2014, she was the top-selling classical instrumentalist on Billboard's traditional classical charts.[46][47]
Grammy Awards
Her album Fandango won two Latin GRAMMY Awards — Best Classical Album and Best Classical Contemporary Composition — at the 25th Latin GRAMMY Awards in Miami. The album features the live world premiere of Arturo Márquez's new concerto for violin and orchestra by the same name, written for Meyers, recorded with the L.A. Philharmonic and conductor Gustavo Dudamel.[48] The project also earned Meyers two GRAMMY nominations.
In 2006, she served as a panelist, recitalist, and teacher at the Juilliard School's Starling-DeLay Symposium. In May 2008, UCLA invited her to be the Regent's Lecturer in violin.[51]
In late 2009, Meyers joined the Butler School of Music at University of Texas at Austin as Distinguished Artist and Professor of Violin.[52]
In September 2015, she was honored with a Luminary Award by the Pasadena Symphony for her long-standing support of that orchestra.[53]
