Takako Nishizaki

Violinist Takako Nishizaki was the first student to complete the Suzuki Method course at age nine. Before she was ten, Takako Nishizaki had already played for artists like Isaac Stern and Georges Duhamel.

When she was in the U.S. in 1962, Takako Nishizaki was awarded the Fritz Kreisler Scholarship and, in 1964, took second place, behind Itzhak Perlman, in the Leventritt Award. In 1969, she won first prize in Juilliard Concerto Competition while performing Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with Nobuko Imai.

Takako Nishizaki performed and recorded with pianists such as Andras Schiff, Jenö Jandó and Michael Ponti. She also performed in chamber music ensembles alongside Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zuckerman.

She is married to Naxos record label owner Klaus Heymann.