Coco Tomita & Simon Callaghan
Biography Coco Tomita & Simon Callaghan
Coco Tomita
was born in Japan in 2002 and began to play the violin when she was four years old. She became a pupil of Natasha Boyarsky when she was six, and in 2012 she was awarded a place at the Yehudi Menuhin School where she has continued to study with Mrs Boyarsky.
In 2010, at the age of eight, Coco became the youngest contestant to win Third Prize in the Junior section of the Andrea Postacchini International Violin Competition in Fermo, Italy. Two years later, she made her debut appearance at the Cadogan Hall, London performing as a soloist with the Southbank Sinfonia.
Since joining the Yehudi Menuhin School she has given many performances; in October 2013 she was one of the soloists for Vivaldi: Concerto for Four Violins with the Menuhin School Orchestra in Holland, and a year later at the Milton Court, London alongside Alina Ibragimova. In 2015, she was one of the two soloists for Bach: Concerto for Two Violins for the Shipley Arts Festival, and was also invited to give two recitals in Ancona, Italy, as part of ZonaMusica Universal Musica concert series in Maiolati Spontini, and Incontri Musicali d’Estate at Istituto Campana in Osimo, Italy. Most recenty she performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Dorking Chamber Orchestra.
Coco has also performed at various Masterclasses given by Shmuel Ashkenasi, Zakhar Bron, Ida Haendel, Lewis Kaplan and Weidong Tong, all of whom gave her an enthusiastic praise, encouragement and guidance.
