Violinist Kako Miura Boga To Perform Nov. 18

Acclaimed violinist Kako Miura Boga will return to the area the weekend of Saturday, Nov. 18, to perform in concert with The University of Scranton String Orchestra.

Presented by Performance Music at The University of Scranton, Saturday’s concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Houlihan-McLean Center, Mulberry Street and Jefferson Avenue. Admission is free and the concert is open to the public, with seating on a first-come, first-seated basis.

There will also be a masterclass for violinists ages 16 and older offered on Saturday afternoon. Contact music@scranton.edu for more information.

Miura Boga, a regular visitor to the University in recent years, will perform as soloist with the University’s String Orchestra. The concert will include works by a variety of composers, including Balmages, Ewazen, Gackstatter, Morricone, Newbold, Piazzola and Senaillé, according to Performance Music Conductor and Director Cheryl Y. Boga.

Originally from Tokyo, Japan, and now based in New York, Kako is a violinist who performs on both historical and modern instruments. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including first prize in the Nagano International Music Festival Violin Competition, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra’s Young Artists Competition, and Sound Symphony Orchestra’s Solo Competition, as well as a National Young Arts Foundation Award. In 2021, Kako was named a Fellow of The English Concert in America, and in 2022, a Mercury-Juilliard Fellow. She is co-founder and co-leader of the period chamber orchestra Relic.

Miura Boga has appeared internationally as a soloist, performing alongside orchestras in Asia, Australia and the United States, and her solo and chamber music performances have taken her to such distinguished venues as Alice Tully Hall of Lincoln Center, Weill and Zankel Halls at Carnegie Hall and the Sydney Opera House. As an ensemblist, she is highly sought after in New York and beyond, appearing with many established ensembles including Handel and Haydn Society, New York Baroque Incorporated, Trinity Baroque Orchestra and New York Classical Players.

Deeply committed to community engagement and music education, Miura Boga has worked extensively with the Music Advancement Program, a department of The Juilliard School’s Preparatory Division, offering instruction on violin and chamber music as well as courses on historical performance and curricular studies.

Miura Boga is a recent graduate of the Historical Performance program at The Juilliard School and led its orchestra as concertmaster on a tour of Germany with the Yale Schola Cantorum in the summer of 2022. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School, where she also attended the Pre-College program, as well as a Master of Music from The Colburn School. Her principal teachers have included Cynthia Roberts, Elizabeth Blumenstock, Robert Lipsett and Masao Kawasaki.

Miura Boga plays a J. N. Lambert Baroque violin and several period bows, as well as a St. Cécile de Thernes violin and Sartory bow, generously on loan from the Nippon Violin Company.

The University of Scranton String Orchestra is a 30-plus-member ensemble made up of members of the University community from majors and departments spanning the curriculum, most of them undergraduate students, joined by a few graduate students, alumni and members of the faculty. With no music major at the University, the performers are brought together entirely by their mutual love of making music.

For further information on the recital, call 570-941-7624, email music@scranton.edu or visit the Performance Music website. For more information on Miura Boga, visit relicensemble.org/about/musicians.