Concertmaster Kazuhiro Takagi enjoys an international career and reputation as an experienced violin soloist, recording artist, and leader of orchestras. He has served tenures as concertmaster of the Tokyo Symphony, Chicago Civic Orchestra (under Daniel Barenboim), and solo concertmaster of the Yamagata Symphony and Wuerttembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen in Germany. He has also held positions with the Osaka Philharmonic, Osaka Symphony, Japan Century Symphony, Vietnam National Symphony and the Kansai Philharmonic.

Mr. Takagi has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in the United States, Europe and Japan. He is a prizewinner of the prestigious Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition and the 54th Geneva International Music Competition. As first violinist of the Eusia String Quartet, he received first prize in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in Indiana. For his performances, he has also received the coveted Aoyama Music Award of Kyoto Baroque Saal.

Born in Osaka, Japan, and currently a resident of Tokyo, Mr. Takagi returns to Dallas frequently, as he established deep roots in the North Texas community while studying violin with Eduard Schmieder at Southern Methodist University. Extensively trained on his instrument, he is a graduate of the prestigious Deuxieme Academie de Musique Francaise de Kyoto where he was a pupil of Pierre Dukan, and the Conservatoire National Superieur in Lyon, France, where he was mentored by Yuko Mori and Eduard Wulfson.

In addition to his duties as concertmaster of the Dallas Chamber Symphony, Mr. Takagi holds positions with the Nagaokakyo Chamber Ensmeble in Kyoto, Izumi Sinfonietta Osaka, Lilis Chamber Orchestra, and the alternative music group A Hundred Birds.

Mr. Takagi’s solo recordings with the Osaka Philharmonic are widely distributed on the Naxos label. His most recent album features the twentieth-century works of composer Hiroshi Ohguri.

Jesús Castro-Balbi’s artistic activities encompass critically acclaimed performances and broadcasts in the US, Asia, Europe and throughout Latin America as a soloist with, among other orchestras, the Dallas and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestras, the China Philharmonic, the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra (Denmark), the Leipzig MDR radio orchestra, the Mexico City Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra (Peru). He appeared in prestigious venues from Alice Tully Hall and over a dozen appearances at Carnegie Hall in New York to the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. He further performs at prominent festivals, including the Lincoln Center Festival, and in Cartagena (Colombia), Morelia (Mexico), San Miguel de Allende (Mexico) and Riga (Latvia). Beyond the beloved standard repertoire, he has developed a long-standing affinity with music of our time, whether bringing the Lutoslawski concerto to audiences from New Orleans to Lima, performing William Bolcom’s Capriccio at the Cliburn at the Modern series in Fort Worth, presenting the American premiere of Lera Auerbach’s Postscriptum in New York with Clavier Trio, or recording the complete music for cello and piano by Robert Rodriguez with pianist Gloria Lin. To date, he has presented 51 premiere performances of concerti, chamber music and cello ensemble music, the world premiere recording of 17 works, and is the dedicatee of 19 compositions. Notable among these is his 2015 recording of the cello concerto Lord of the Air by Jimmy López for Harmonia Mundi with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra led by Miguel Harth-Bedoya. This album was named Album of the Week by the Chicago Tribune, Le Choix de France-Musique, and won the Luces prize in Peru.

As a teacher of international reputation, he presents master-classes and seminars abroad at Beijing’s Central Conservatory, the Paris Conservatoire, the Leipzig and Stuttgart Hochschule, for the Japan Cello Society, and in the US at the Juilliard School and the Yale School of Music. As an adjudicator, he served on the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s Lynn Harrell Competition, the Sphinx Competition (Michigan), and at the Aiqin Bei (China), Lutoslawski (Poland) and Carlos Prieto (Mexico) international cello competitions.

A professor at the Texas Christian University School of Music in Fort Worth, Texas, he has developed since 2003 a select studio of undergraduate and graduate cellists from the US and abroad. He is the founding artistic director of the TCU Cello Ensemble and of the TCU Cellofest, led the Faculty & Friends Chamber Music Series for 11 years, and received the College of Fine Arts Award for Distinguished Achievement as a Creative Teacher and Scholar. His commitment to the university extends to service on various forums advancing the institution’s mission ranging from the Faculty Senate to institutional strategic planning.

Of Peruvian heritage, raised in France and now a US citizen, Dr. Castro-Balbi graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur at Lyon, Indiana University at Bloomington, the Yale School of Music, and holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Juilliard School. He had the privilege to learn from Aldo Parisot, Janos Starker, and members of the Amadeus, Borodine, Juilliard, Ravel and Tokyo String Quartets.