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Motoi Takeda began his violin studies at the age of three with Mr. Yamaguchi in his native Japan. Under the tutelage of world-renowned Saburo Sumi, the thirteen-year-old won first place in a national high school competition. That same year Leonid Kogan heard his playing in a master class and invited young Takeda to become his student at the Moscow Conservatory. At age seventeen he was awarded a music degree. After graduation he was granted a four-year full scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music where he studied with Oscar Shumsky and Nathan Milstein.



In 1973 Mr. Takeda won the Juilliard Violin Concerto Competition. He made his professional debut with the Tokyo Vivaldi Ensemble in 1980. One year later he received the silver medal in the prestigious G.B. Dealey Dallas Morning News Competition.

Mr. Takeda is presently Associate Concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. He performs regularly as soloist with the Dallas Symphony as well as with other orchestras and gives recitals throughout the world.

Mr. Takeda's playing brings the highest praises not only from his audiences but also from critics and conductors. Mr. Takeda plays on a 1718 Stradivarius and a Francois Tourte ex-Lipinski bow for the recording of this CD.


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