Aiko Goto
VIOLINIST
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Aiko Goto has been a member of the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) since 1998.
She began her violin training at the age of three with the Suzuki Method and studied at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Japan. Aiko received a scholarship to study at the Juilliard School in New York under Dorothy DeLay and Masao Kawasaki, graduating in 1994.
In 1995 she made her New York debut at the Carnegie Weil Recital Hall and in 1997 she performed for the International Refugee Fund attended by the Japanese Royal Family. Aiko was the Coordinator of Strings at Newark School of the Arts in the USA until 1998.
She has been a member of the Saito Kinen Orchestra since 1995 (directed by Seiji Ozawa) and has been Concertmaster for several of its programs since 2014. She has played annually in Nobuko Imai’s Viola and Chamber Music Festival. Since 2000, Aiko has held annual charity concert at the Japanese Embassy in Canberra and she has held solo recitals around Australia, and in 2006 gave recitals in Tokyo for the Australia–Japan Year of Exchange.
In 2011 Aiko was invited to be Guest Director and soloist with the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra, and produced and performed in ‘Concert for Japan’, raising funds for the Tohoku Japan Earthquake and Tsunami appeal.
Aiko enjoys teaching and sharing her love of music with young musicians. She is a mentor for the ACO Emerging Artists Program and ACO Collective, and has led the ACO Academy program annually since 2012. Since 2017, she has been a tutor of the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy in Japan.
In August 2016, Aiko received a commendation from the Japanese Foreign Ministry on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Basic Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Japan and Australia.