Karen Gomyo, ‘a first-rate artist of real musical command, vitality, brilliance and intensity’ (The Chicago Tribune), possesses a rare ability to captivate and connect intimately with audiences through her deeply emotional performances. With a flawless command of the instrument and an elegance of expression, she is one of today’s leading violinists, collaborating with some of the most esteemed conductors, including Semyon Bychkov, Jakub Hrůša, Gustavo Dudamel, John Storgårds, Fabio Luisi, Gustavo Gimeno, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Karina Canellakis, Andrew Manze, Constantinos Carydis, Jun Märkl, Cristian Măcelaru and Xian Zhang.
Highlights of her most recent seasons included debuts with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart, Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orquesta Nacional de España, Orchestra RAI Torino, BBC Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic and Warsaw Philharmonic, as well as returns to the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.
Karen’s 2026/27 season will bring highly anticipated returns to the Czech Philharmonic under Semyon Bychkov, Bamberg Symphony under Krzysztof Urbański and Mozarteumorchester Salzburg under Dima Slobodeniouk, as well as debuts with the Galicia Symphony under Otto Tausk and the Kraków Philharmonic with Sascha Goetzel. Her North American season begins with the world premiere of a new violin concerto by Samuel Adams with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Elim Chan. Further ahead, Karen will return to the Dallas, Utah, Oregon and Vancouver Symphonies, as well as the Aspen Festival and Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. In Australia, Karen will join the Australian Chamber Orchestra for the ACO On The Pier Festival, curated by composer Samuel Adams and will return to the Sydney Symphony together with conductor Bernard Labadie.
As a passionate chamber musician, Karen has performed with artists such as Olli Mustonen, Leif Ove Andsnes, Enrico Pace, James Ehnes, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Daishin Kashimoto, Amihai Grosz, Emmanuel Pahud, Alisa Weilerstein, Julian Steckel, the late Heinrich Schiff, mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth and guitarist Ismo Eskelinen, with whom she recorded the duo album Carnival on BIS Records.
She is also a champion of the nuevo tango music of Astor Piazzolla, having collaborated with Piazzolla’s longtime pianist and tango legend Pablo Ziegler, as well as with bandoneon players Héctor del Curto, JP Jofre and Marcelo Nisinman. In 2021, Karen released A Piazzolla Trilogy (BIS Records), recorded with the Strings of Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and guitarist Stephanie Jones.
With a strong commitment to contemporary music, each season, Karen performs a work written by a living composer. Most recently, she has given the US premieres of Samy Moussa’s Violin Concerto Adrano with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Matthias Pintscher’s Concerto No.2, Mar’eh, with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., under the composer’s baton and Xi Wang’s YEAR 2020: Concerto for Violin, Trumpet and Orchestra with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth, conducted by Fabio Luisi. In 2018, she performed the world premiere of Samuel Adams’s Chamber Concerto with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen, written for her and commissioned for the CSO’s MusicNOW 20th anniversary series.
Born in Tokyo, Karen began her musical career in Montréal and New York. She studied under the legendary pedagogue Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School before continuing her studies at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and the New England Conservatory with Mauricio Fuks and Donald Weilerstein, respectively. She also studied privately for a formative period in Vienna with Heinrich Schiff. Karen participated as violinist, host, and narrator in a documentary film produced by NHK Japan about Antonio Stradivarius, The Mysteries of the Supreme Violin, which was broadcast worldwide on NHK WORLD.