Anna Hashimoto, Clarinet

Anna Hashimoto, Clarinet

Anna Hashimoto’s career encompasses appearances as a soloist and orchestral musician alongside a commitment to education.
As a soloist Anna has worked with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, and per-formed chamber music collaborations with artists such as Michael Collins, Leon McCawley, and the Endellion, Piatti, and Maxwell String Quartets. After winning the Young Clarinettists Competition in Tokyo in 2003, she made her London concer-to debut at the age of fifteen with the English Chamber Orchestra at the Barbican Centre, and went on to win international clarinet competitions in Carlino, Italy, in 2009, and Kortrijk, Belgium, in 2010. Following this, her solo career took her to major venues across Europe and Japan, performing concertos with orchestras such as the Brussels Philharmonic, Filharmonie Hradec Kralove in the renowned Dvořák Hall in Prague, and OFUNAM in Mexico. Anna has also given numerous recitals in-cluding at the Lucerne Festival and Harrogate International Music Festival. She went on to release three solo CD albums which all received high praise, and has been broadcast on NHK TV and FM, Tokyo FM, ABC Radio and BBC Radio 3, including numerous appearances in Radio 3’s ‘In Tune’, NHK-FM’s ‘Best of Classic’, and NHK TV’s ‘Classic Club’.

She has appeared as guest principal clarinet with numerous UK orchestras including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and the Philharmonia, as well as orchestras further afield such as the Japan Chamber Orchestra, Etihad Chamber Orchestra, and the Flanders Symphony Orchestra. She is the principal clarinettist of the Bath Philharmonia.

In Japan, Anna is a sought-after soloist, travelling each year for concerto and recital tours. She has appeared as a soloist with orchestras such as Japan Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Nagoya Philharmonic, Tokyo City Philharmonic, and the Chamber Orchestra of the NHK Symphony with conductors such as Myung-Whun Chung and Martyn Brabbins. She has also collaborated with string quartets such as Kodaly and Prazak Quartets, and cellist Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi for a chamber music series at the Suntory Hall, Tokyo. She is a founding member of the Atéa Quintet, the Associate Ensemble in Residence at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. In 2014 they were also Quintet in Residence at The Purcell School. Anna is keen to promote new music, having commissioned numerous works for her recitals, including ‘Hikinuki’ by Richard Bullen, which is now published by the Composers Edition.

Anna teaches clarinet and E-flat clarinet at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and often tutors on summer schools such as Sound and Music Summer School for young composers, and the Dartington International Summer School & Festival, and is one of the clarinet tutors for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. She has given masterclasses and workshops across the country and judged numerous competitions such as Japan Clarinet Society’s Young Clarinettists Competition (2011) and the Cardiff Clarinet Convention (2016).

Anna is a graduate of the Royal College of Music Junior Department, The Purcell School, and the Royal Academy of Music where she studied with the world–renowned soloist Michael Collins. She is now an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, a Vandoren-UK artist, and is represented by Nippon Artist Management Inc. in Japan. She plays on Peter Eaton International model clarinets and basset clarinet.