Koh Gabriel Kameda

In 2006, Kameda founded The Tokyo Chamber Philharmonic. A project orchestra based in the metropolitan area of Tokyo. In the same year, Kameda lead the orchestra on its first tour of Japan, conducting, as well as soloing with the newly founded orchestra; the first program was "The 8 seasons" a combined performance of the Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi and the Estaciones Porteñas from Astor Piazzolla arranged by pianist and composer Peter von Wienhardt.

Kameda held a teaching position at the Zurich University of the Arts between 2004 and 2009. In 2010 he was appointed at his present position as professor of violin at the University of Music Detmold.

In April 2002, Kameda performed at the Violin Concerto by Louis Gruenberg in Japan, with the New Japan Philharmonic under the direction of Gerard Schwarz. This work was commissioned by Jascha Heifetz in 1945. After Jascha Heifetz had performed and recorded the concerto with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Monteux it has not been presented by anyone until Kameda played it as the first violinist besides Heifetz. Gruenberg's daughter, Joan commented on Kameda's performance “I was delighted to discover your brilliant performance of my father's violin concerto. You have perfected this difficult piece and played it beautifully.” German journalist and author Harald Eggebrecht also reviewed Kameda's performance of the Gruenberg concerto in his book "Große Geiger. Kreisler, Heifetz, Oistrach, Mutter, Hahn und Co".

Kameda has received praise for his extensive artistic activities in Japan, where he has become a figure in the classical music scene. In 2000 he performed at the Suntory Hall five times, and each time the tickets were sold out completely. Ten years earlier in 1990, he made his stage debut in Japan performing various violin concertos during the same concert in Tokyo (Suntory Hall) and Osaka (The Symphony Hall). However, his career in Japan did not commence with these concerts, but rather on the primetime TV documentary program “NHK special: Einstein Roman” by the Japan Broadcasting Corporation NHK. He worked together with author Michael Ende and fashion designer Hanae Mori, starring in the lead role and recording the soundtrack. At the same time he recorded a laser disc of the program, the first classical music laser disc produced in Japan.

His ongoing project, “Music Heals”, a series of concerts in hospitals where for many years Kameda has been actively volunteering to bring music to patients, was featured by TV Tokyo in a 60-minute television documentary broadcast in 1999.

Kameda, who was the first prize winner of the Henryk Szeryng International Violin Competition in Mexico in 1997, enjoyed great recognition by both international audiences and colleagues. After hearing him play, Yehudi Menuhin stated enthusiastically that he “was extremely impressed” with Kameda's performance and Sir James Galway proclaimed that “he is one of the most remarkable players of his generation”.

At the age of twelve, Kameda enrolled in the University of Music in Karlsruhe, Germany, and was mentored by professor Josef Rissin. In 1993 violinist and conductor Pinchas Zukerman invited him to come to New York and work with him at the Manhattan School of Music.

An outstanding moment in Kameda's early career was the collaboration with the late Witold Lutoslawski in 1993, in a series of concerts, a year before the death of the Polish composer. He performed “Chain II” under the baton of the composer himself, and from those concerts the last live CD of the composer was produced, receiving acclaim by the press: “outstanding”, according to Neue Musik Zeitung; “superb technique and expressive maturity”, wrote Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Kameda debuted in 1988 at the age of thirteen in Baden-Baden, Germany, performing the Violin Concerto no.5 by Henri Vieuxtemps with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra. Since then he has performed all throughout Europe, Asia, as well as in North and South America. He has appeared as a soloist with leading orchestras around the world including the Staatskapelle Dresden, Berliner Symphoniker, Hamburger Symphoniker, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Athens State Orchestra, and Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra among many others.

Koh Gabriel Kameda (Japanese: 亀田 光; born January 14, 1975) is a German and Japanese concert violinist and violin teacher.

Kameda has played on notable instruments such as David Tecchler 1715, Antonius Stradivari 1715 ex Joachim, most recently he plays the "Holroyd" Antonius Stradivari of 1727.