Minami Yoshida

Minami Yoshida (stage name – MINAMI) is one of Japan’s most promising young violinists. She currently plays the A Stradivarius 1716 “Booth”, generously loaned to her by the Nippon Music Foundation.

Minami was awarded the Bronze Medal/third prize, and also the special prize for “Best Performance of a Classical Concerto”, at the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis in 2022 (aged 24). In addition to this, she has achieved numerous other competition accolades. She was a Laureate of the Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition in 2021 (aged 23), third prize winner at the Concours musical international de Montréal in 2016 (at the age of 17), a prize winner at the Sibelius International Competition in 2015 (aged 17) and first prize winner at The Music Competition of Japan in 2014 (at the age of 16). Furthermore, she has received the following awards for her musicality: the “Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant Award” in 2019 (aged 21), the “7th Tokiko Iwatani Foundation for Youth Award” in 2016 (at the age of 17) and the “3rd Arion-Toho Music Award” in 2015 (aged 16).

At the age of 12, Minami debuted with the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra and has continued to perform with orchestras including the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Miami, National Symphony Orchestra (Taiwan Philharmonic), Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra and others.

Born in Nara, a traditional ancient city in Japan, Minami began playing the violin at the age of five. After graduating from Toho Gakuen Music High School, she was awarded her Bachelor of Music as the recipient of a Dean’s Scholarship at the New England Conservatory of Music, studying with Miriam Fried. She later received her Artist Diploma at Toho Gakuen School of Music, studying with Koichiro Harada. Minami is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree as a Dean’s Scholarship holder under Miriam Fried at the New England Conservatory of Music, and is also an honorary scholarship student at Tokyo College of Music, studying for an Artist Diploma with Koichiro Harada and Kyoko Takezawa.

Minami’s participation in festivals has included appearances at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute as part of the Ravinia Festival, the Taipei Music Festival and Academy, and the Ishikawa Music Academy, earning a full scholarship for all three programmes.

In addition to these scholarships, she has also received support from the Tan Family Education Foundation, the ROHM Music Foundation and the Ezoe Memorial Recruit Foundation.

Minami has been studying at Kronberg Academy with Mihaela Martin since October 2024.