Anna Hashimoto / Biography

Anna Hashimoto made her Barbican Hall debut playing the Weber Concertino with the English Chamber Orchestra in December 2004. She won the First Prize at the Japan Clarinet Society’s ‘Young Clarinettists Competition’ in 2003, where she was also awarded all three special prizes. As a result she was invited to play as a guest performer at the JCS concert in Tokyo in January 2004. Anna was the winner of the Parthenon Tama Prize at the Japan Clarinet Competition in September. There were in total 170 entries and Anna was the youngest ever participant in the competition’s history.

Anna was born in Japan in June 1989 and moved to London six months later. She started playing the piano at the age of four and the clarinet when she was eight years old.

Anna started the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music in 1998, where she studied with Charles Hine for six years. There she has been awarded the Else and Leonard Cross Memorial Scholarship. She has taken part in masterclasses by Jozsef Balogh, Michael Whight, Victoria Soames-Samek, Alan Hacker and Anthony Pay.

Amongst many of the prizes Anna has been awarded a Silver Bursary and the Phillip Walsh Memorial Prize for clarinet and the Hedy King Robinson Prize for theory of music, from Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music. As a pianist Anna took part in the World Premiere of ‘Spectrum 3 ‘ at the BBC Radio Theatre in May 2001. In April 2002 she appeared both as a pianist and a clarinettist at a concert in the Drapers’ Hall in the City of London. Anna has given recitals for the Benslow Music Trust, the Cambridge Summer Festival, the British Uruguayan Society, the Linton Music Society and the Bluthner Piano Centre.

Anna appeared in the Wigmore Hall, playing Jean Francaix’s Wind Quartet on 1^st March 2004. She was the soloist for the Weber Concerto No.2 with the Purcell School Sinfonia later in the month. She performed at the Spirit of Youth Festival in Rochdale in May and gave a concerto performance with the Barnet Symphony Orchestra in July 2004.

In February 2005 Anna performed at the Cadogan Hall in the presence of Princess Alexandra and in April she played Weber Concerto No.1 with the Finchley Chamber Orchestra. Forthcoming engagements include a performance of Rossini’s ‘ Introduction, Theme and Variations ‘ with the London Pro Arte Orchestra and a further performance with the English Chamber Orchestra. Anna will be appearing as a soloist at the International ClarinetFest in Tokyo in July 2005.

Anna Hashimoto is currently studying with David Fuest at the Purcell School under the Government Music and Dance Scheme. She had been the joint principal clarinettist of the National Youth Sinfonia, and she is now a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain as well as the Purcell Symphony Orchestra and the Royal College of Music JD Symphony Orchestra.