Anne Akiko Meyers and
Jason Vieaux
Saturday, February 28, 2026
7:30 p.m.
Smart, sophisticated partnership of violin and guitar soloists
at the top of their craft
One would be forgiven for thinking that high-profile instrumental soloists prefer to “work alone.” On occasion, however, the stars align, and these extraordinary artists form unique collaborations to the enjoyment of all. We are pleased to welcome to our stage violinist Anne Akiko Meyers and classical guitarist Jason Vieaux for a special duo performance. Cutting-edge works by Philip Glass and Arturo Marquez weave together with music by Stravinsky and Piazzolla to create an international tapestry. The program also features a new piece by recent Kennedy Center Composer-in-Residence Mason Bates, of whom Ms. Meyers, famed for her impressive body of commissioned works, is a frequent muse. Together with Mr. Vieaux, called by NPR “perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation,” this duo promises to ignite the mind and inspire the heart.
Igor Stravinsky Suite Italienne
Mason Bates New work *
Philip Glass Metamorphosis II
Jose Luis Merlin Suite del Recuerdo
Astor Piazzolla Oblivion
Arturo Marquez Danzon No. 2 *
*commissioned works, Washington premieres
$48 live in-person
About the Artists
Anne Akiko Meyers, GRAMMY® Award winner, is 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. The Strad hails her as “the Wonder Woman of commissioning,” a title earned through her close collaborations with visionary composers such as Arvo Pärt, Einojuhani Rautavaara, John Corigliano, Arturo Márquez, Philip Glass, Michael Daugherty, Mason Bates, Adam Schoenberg, Billy Childs, Jakub Ciupiński, Ola Gjeilo, Morten Lauridsen, Wynton Marsalis, Somei Satoh, and Eric Whitacre. 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 the 2025-26 season Meyers premieres Eric Whitacre’s The Pacific Has No Memory with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, releases four new world premiere recordings, and performs in recitals and with leading orchestras. The new recordings include Blue Electra, a violin concerto by Michael Daugherty with David Alan Miller and the Albany Symphony; Beloved, including Billy Childs’s requiem In The Arms of the Beloved, and selections by Ola Gjeilo and Eric Whitacre, with Grant Gershon and the Los Angeles Master Chorale; Philip Glass’s New Chaconne and Violin Concerto No. 1, with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic; and Adam Schoenberg’s Orchard in Fog, with Gemma New and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
Meyers has appeared twice on The Tonight Show , Tiny Desk, Evening at Pops, and Great Performances, and has made more than 40 critically acclaimed recordings.
In 2024, her recording of Arturo Márquez’s Fandango, with Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic, received two Latin GRAMMY® Awards: Best Classical Album and Best Contemporary Composition. Fandango was premiered in 2021 at The Hollywood Bowl, and has been performed more than 40 times with 16 different orchestras around the world, including the LA Phil’s triumphant return to Carnegie Hall after 32 years. Meyers returns to the Hollywood Bowl this September to reprise Fandango with the LA Phil.
Anne has worked closely with some of the most important composers of the last half century, including Arvo Pärt (Estonian Lullaby), Einojuhani Rautavaara (Fantasia, his final complete work), John Corigliano (cadenzas for the Beethoven Violin Concerto; Lullaby for Natalie), Arturo Márquez (Fandango), Philip Glass (New Chaconne), Michael Daugherty (Blue Electra), Mason Bates and Adam Schoenberg (violin concertos), Billy Childs (In The Arms of the Beloved), Jakub Ciupiński, Jennifer Higdon, Morten Lauridsen, Wynton Marsalis, Somei Satoh, Joseph Schwantner, and Eric Whitacre (The Pacific Has No Memory, Seal Lullaby ) performing world premieres with the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Nashville, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Helsinki, Hyogo, Leipzig, London, Lyon, and New Zealand.
The violinist’s first national television appearances were on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, at age 11, followed by performances that include Evening At Pops with John Williams, CBS Sunday Morning, Great Performances, Countdown with Keith Olbermann (in a segment that was the third most popular story of that year), The Emmy Awards, and The View. John Williams chose Anne to perform the theme from Schindler’s List for a Great Performances PBS telecast, and Arvo Pärt invited her to be his guest soloist at the opening ceremony concerts of his new center and concert hall in Estonia.
Krzysztof Penderecki selected Anne to perform the Beethoven Violin Concerto at the 40th Pablo Casals Festival with the Montreal Symphony, which was broadcast on A&E. Her recording of Somei Satoh’s Birds in Warped Time II was used by architect Michael Arad for his award-winning design submission, which today has become The World Trade Center Memorial in lower Manhattan.
Other career highlights include a performance of the Barber Violin Concerto at the Australian Bicentennial Concert for an audience of 750,000 in Sydney Harbour; performances for the Emperor and Empress Akihito of Japan; for Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, in a Museumplein Concert with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; and “The Star-Spangled Banner” at T-Mobile Park in Seattle and Dodger Stadium. She was profiled on NPR’s Morning Edition with Linda Wertheimer and All Things Considered with Robert Siegel, and she curated “Living American” on Sirius XM Radio’s Symphony Hall.
Anne has been featured in commercials and advertising campaigns including Anne Klein, shot by legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz; Northwest Airlines; DDI Japan; and TDK; and was the inspiration for the main character’s career path in the novel The Engagements, by the popular author J. Courtney Sullivan. She collaborated with children’s book author and illustrator Kristine Papillon on Crumpet the Trumpet, appearing as the character Violetta the violinist, and featured in a documentary about legendary radio personality Jim Svejda. Anne has collaborated with a diverse array of artists including jazz icons Chris Botti and Wynton Marsalis; avant-garde musician Ryuichi Sakamoto; electronic music pioneer Isao Tomita; pop-era act Il Divo; and singer, Michael Bolton.
Anne was born in San Diego and grew up in Southern California, where she and her mother traveled eight hours, round trip, from the Mojave Desert to Pasadena for lessons with Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld at the predecessor of the Colburn School of Performing Arts. Anne moved to New York at the age of 14 to study at The Juilliard School with the legendary violin instructor Dorothy DeLay, and with Masao Kawasaki and Felix Galimir; she signed with management at 16; and recorded her debut album of the Barber and Bruch Violin Concertos with the RPO at Abbey Road Studios at 18.
She has received the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Distinguished Alumna Award, and an Honorary Doctorate from The Colburn School. She was recently honored by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, inducted into the Asian Hall of Fame and serves on the Board of Trustees of The Juilliard School and The Dudamel Foundation.
Anne performs on Larsen Strings with the Ex-Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesù, dated 1741, considered by many to be the finest-sounding violin in existence.
Grammy-winner Jason Vieaux, “among the elite of today’s classical guitarists” (Gramophone), is described by NPR as “perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation”.
In appearances from New York’s Lincoln Center to Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and the Seoul Arts Center, Jason Vieaux has cemented his reputation as an artist of brilliance and uncompromised mastery. Cited for his “eloquent and vibrant performances” on disc (Gramophone Magazine) he is hailed as “virtuosic, flamboyant, dashing and, sometimes ineffably lyrical” (New York Times) on stage.
Sought-after for his extensive concerto repertoire, Vieaux has performed with a long list of orchestras including Cleveland, Toronto, St. Louis, Houston, Columbus, and has made premiere recordings with the Nashville Symphony (Leshnoff Concerto) and the Norrköping Symphony (Beal Six Sixteen). He has worked with renowned conductors including Giancarlo Guerrero, Jahja Ling, Gerard Schwarz, and David Robertson. Vieaux’s passion for new music has fostered premieres from Jeff Beal, Avner Dorman, Vivian Fung, Pierre Jalbert, Jonathan Leshnoff, David Ludwig, Mark Mancina, and Dan Visconti, among many others.
Vieaux’s extensive discography includes his “Bach Volume 2: Works for Violin” released on Azica in 2022 to rave reviews for his “eloquent and vibrant performances” (Gramophone). Additional 2022 releases include “Shining Night” featuring his duo with acclaimed violinist Anne Akiko Meyers (Avie Records) and Michael Fine’s “Concierto del Luna” with flutist Alexa Still (Sony Classical), both enjoying strong critical acclaim. Vieaux recorded Pat Metheny’s “Four Paths of Light”, a solo work dedicated to him by Pat, for Metheny’s 2021 album “Road to the Sun”. Jason Vieaux won the 2014 Best Instrumental Classical Solo Grammy Award for “Play”. The Huffington Post declared PLAY is “part of the revitalized interest in the classical guitar”.
A busy touring performer, Jason Vieaux enjoys repeated invitations from distinguished series, including San Francisco Performances, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and the 92nd Street Y, among others. Festival engagements include Ravinia, Caramoor, Domaine-Forget, Music@Menlo, Round Top, and the Eastern Music Festival. Overseas performance venues include Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Seoul Arts Center, Shanghai Concert Hall, Sala Sao Paolo, and Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires.
Jason Vieaux enjoys ongoing performing and recording collaborations with the Escher String Quartet, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, accordion/bandoneon virtuoso Julien Labro, and saxophone virtuoso Timothy McAllister.
In 2011 Vieaux co-founded the guitar department at the Curtis Institute of Music (with David Starobin). He has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music for 25 years. Jason’s online Guitar School for Artistworks Inc. has hundreds of subscribers from all over the world. He plays a guitar by Gernot Wagner, 2013, made in Frankfurt.