The UK-based Japanese violinist Coco Tomita won the BBC Young Musician 2020 Strings Category, which quickly led to numerous concert invitations from venues across the UK as well as in her home country, Japan. Previously, she had won numerous prizes at international competitions and festivals, including Gold Medals at the Vienna International Music Competition and Berliner International Music Competition, the Carl Flesch Prize at the Carl Flesch Academy, and first prize at the Eastbourne Symphony Orchestra Young Soloist Competition.
Coco was born into a musical family and began to play the violin when she was four years old. Two years later, she became a pupil of Natasha Boyarsky, with whom she continued her studies at the Yehudi Menuhin School, and later with Lutsia Ibragimova. Since April 2021, she has been training at the Hochschule fur Musik Hanns Eisler, Berlin.
At the age of 10, Coco made her debut at the Cadogan Hall, London performing as a soloist with the Southbank Sinfonia. Along with numerous solo and chamber music performances at the Menuhin Hall, Coco has performed and appeared at many prestigious venues in the UK including the Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, Milton Court and the Palace of Holyrood as well as in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland.
After the success of BBC Young Musician 2020, Coco has signed an exclusive agreement with Orchid Classics to record her debut album with pianist Simon Callaghan, which is due to be released in early 2022. She will be accompanied by her father, Kan Tomita, in this concert.