Information
Facts
Born in Tokyo, Japan
Member since 01.09.1997
Biography
When she was three, her mother asked Kotowa Machida if she’d rather learn piano or violin. Although she chose the violin, her great love for this instrument only truly began when she was 15. After her music studies in Tokyo, she went to Frankfurt on a DAAD scholarship and became a pupil of Edith Peinemann. She attended numerous master classes, including that of Rainer Kussmaul.
Before joining the Berliner Philharmoniker, she was Concertmaster of the Württemberg Philharmonic in Reutlingen for four years. Kotowa Machida’s chamber music activities include membership of the Ensemble Berlin, the Venus Ensemble, the Berlin Baroque Soloists and in the Berlin Klangforum with Wenzel Fuchs. The violinist, who enjoys reading, painting and solving sudoku puzzles, has one uncommon hobby: interior design and architecture.
Awards
Brahms Prize of the Baden-Baden Brahms Society
Ensembles of the Berliner Philharmoniker
If I were not a musician …
How Kotowa Machida relaxes while chopping vegetables.
Behind the music: Kotowa Machida
Video portrait
What is it like to study the violin in Japan and then move to Germany? First violinist Kotowa Machida tells us during a visit to her former music academy in Tokyo. She also recalls her first encounter with the Berliner Philharmoniker, whose famous soloists seemed like gods to her. In 1997, she became a member of the orchestra herself, at a time when neither women nor musicians from Asia were well-represented in the ensemble.
