Canadian violinist KAREN GOMYO won the 1997 Young Concert Artists International Auditions just one week after her fifteenth birthday. The following year she became the youngest artist ever to be presented in the Young Concert Artists Series in New York, in a critically acclaimed debut as recipient of the Summis Auspiciis Prize. The Young Concert Artists Series also presented her Washington, DC recital debut at the Kennedy Center and her New York concerto debut with the New York Chamber Symphony at Alice Tully Hall, playing the Barber Violin Concerto.

The 2005/06 season marked Gomyo's New York Philharmonic debut with six Concerts in the Parks in July 2005 as well as her Detroit Symphony debut in August 2005. She made first appearances that season with the St. Louis Symphony under Michael Christie, the Florida Orchestra with Stefan Sanderling, and the Honolulu Symphony with JoAnn Falletta; she returned to the Houston Symphony, the Vancouver Symphony, the Toledo Symphony, and many others.

Karen Gomyo appeared this past season (2006/07) with the Dallas Symphony and Andrey Boryeko, the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Andrew Litton, the Calgary Philharmonic under its new Music Director Roberto Minczuk, the Buffalo Philharmonic with JoAnn Falletta, the Edmonton Symphony, and others; she opened the 2006/07 concert season of the Residentie Orchestra of the Hague with its new Music Director, Neeme Järvi, on the podium.

In season 2003/04, she appeared with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony under Kazuyoshi Akiyama, the Columbus (Ohio) Symphony under Keith Lockhart, the Calgary Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony with Andreas Delfs, the Oregon Symphony and Music Director Carlos Kalmar, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Florida West Coast Symphony, and the Toledo Symphony Orchestra.

Season 2004/05 featured her in some major subscription debuts with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Utah Symphony, the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra, the Dayton Philharmonic, and the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. In her native Canada she appeared with the Montreal Symphony, the Edmonton Symphony, and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. She also returned to the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra with Maestro Akiyama conducting.

Some of Gomyo's other performances in past seasons included concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Houston Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra with Mario Venzago, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra with Junichi Hirokami, and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra with Maestro Akiyama.

Gomyo has also appeared as soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra conducted by Eiji Oue and Claus Peter Flor, the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christopher Hogwood, the San Antonio Symphony, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, and the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra. Under the baton of Joseph Swensen, she has performed and toured with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra of Sweden, including a concert in Vienna and a tour of Sweden and Hungary.

Gomyo has given a recital tour and chamber music tours of Japan, including concerts at Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and she has performed at The Louvre in Paris, on the Ravinia Rising Stars Series, on the Seattle Symphony Recital Series, and on the La Jolla Chamber Music Society's Prodigy Series. She has appeared at the Aspen Music Festivals in Japan and in Aspen, where she performed with cellist Lynn Harrell, and at the Usedom Music Festival in Germany. She has also performed at Bargemusic and the Bard Festival in New York, at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Avery Fisher Hall in a pre-concert recital, and for the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations.

Karen Gomyo has been heard in New York on WQXR and WNYC Radio, and throughout the U.S. on National Public Radio's "Performance Today." Last season, she was featured with YCA alumnus cellist Carter Brey on A & E Television's "Breakfast with the Arts," in a segment celebrating the 40th anniversary of Young Concert Artists. Her first professional recording (Swedish composer Bo Linde's Violin Concerto) was released recently on the Naxos label.

Born in Tokyo in 1982, Gomyo moved to Montreal in 1984. She began to play in public soon after her first violin lessons at the age of five. After playing for the noted teacher Dorothy DeLay in a master class in Chicago at the age of ten, Miss DeLay invited her to study on full scholarship at The Juilliard School. Gomyo continued her studies at the University of Indiana/Bloomington, working with (YCA alumnus) Mauricio Fuks, and will now begin her work as part of the studio of Donald Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory of Music.

Karen Gomyo is a recipient of support from the Jack Romann Special Artists Fund of YCA. She has been awarded grants from the Heckscher Foundation, the Edward John Noble Foundation, the Dorothy Richard Starling Foundation, the Clarisse B. Kampel Foundation, the Brady Dougan Foundation, the Cho Chang Tsung Foundation, and the Salon de Virtuosi, and continuing support from the Bagby Foundation for the Musical Arts. Gomyo plays the rare "Ex Foulis" Stradivarius of 1703 that is on permanent loan to her from a private sponsor.

07/07