Keila Wakao

Born in 2006 in Boston Massachusetts, Keila Wakao has rapidly gained international recognition as one of the most compelling young violinists of her generation. Her major appearances include her Boston Symphony Orchestra debut at the Season Opening Night Gala (September 2024) under the direction of Andris Nelsons, and her upcoming debut at the Tanglewood Music Festival (July 2026) with Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, performing the Barber Violin Concerto. She was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant (March 2026) and won First Prize at the Menuhin International Violin Competition (Junior Division), where she also received the Composer Award for Outstanding Performance of a Commissioned Work (2021).

 

She has also been invited to appear at distinguished events, including as the sole performer at the unveiling of Seiji Ozawa’s sculpture at Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood (July 2025). Keila also premiered Bobby Ge’s Violin Concerto with David Allan Miller and the Albany Symphony (November 2025), and recorded her debut album with Octavia Records (January 2026) to be released later this year.

 

Additionally, Keila has received further honors including First Prize at the Schadt String Competition (2026), the Gold Medal and Bach Prize at the Stulberg International String Competition (2021), the Aoyama Music Foundation Award for Upcoming Artists in Japan, the Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant in New York (2023), and the Next Generation Distinguished Cultural Achievement Award from the Japan Society of Boston (2024).

 

Named a “VC Artist” by The Violin Channel, Keila Wakao has performed as soloist and recitalist throughout the United States, Japan, Germany, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. She has appeared in leading venues including Symphony Hall and Jordan Hall in Boston, Cadogan Hall in London, Victoria Concert Hall in Singapore, and Carnegie Weill Recital Hall in New York City. She made her solo debut with orchestra at the age of nine and has since performed with ensembles including the Boston, Tokyo Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, Baden-Baden, Albany, and Richmond symphony orchestras, as well as the Resound Collective, and the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. In 2017, she was invited to speak and perform at TEDxBoston.

 

Keila began playing the violin at the age of three. At the age of six, she was accepted as a student of former Boston Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Joseph Silverstein, and from the ages of nine to eighteen, studied with Donald Weilerstein. She has also worked with Itzhak Perlman and participated in the Perlman Music Program from 2018 to 2022. She is currently a second-year undergraduate student of Miriam Fried at the New England Conservatory, where she is a recipient of the Starling Foundation Full Scholarship.

 

Keila Wakao performs on the 1690 Cremona “Theodor” Stradivarius violin, on loan from the Ryuji Ueno Foundation and Rare Violins In Consortium, Artists and Benefactors Collaborative.