Kazuhide Isomura

Kazuhide Isomura, violist, is a graduate of the Toho Academy in Tokyo. His love for chamber music and the violin led him to the Juilliard School, where he studied violin with Ivan Galamian, chamber music with Robert Mann, and viola with Walter Trampler.

Mr. Isomura is a founding member of the Tokyo String Quartet, which won first prize at the Coleman Competition, the Munich Competition, and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions soon after its formation in the fall of 1969. The Tokyo Quartet’s more than 60 landmark recordings earned numerous awards and seven Grammy nominations. As the violist of the Tokyo, Mr. Isomura performed more than 4,000 concerts throughout the world. He also records solo viola repertoire for MusicMasters/Musical Heritage Society.

In 2014, Mr. Isomura received a Career Achievement Award from the American Viola Society in recognition of his distinguished performance as violist of the Tokyo String Quartet.

An artist in residence at Yale University School of Music since 1977, Mr. Isomura joined the Yale faculty in the fall of 2013 as Lecturer, and the Manhattan School of Music faculty, teaching chamber music and viola, in the fall of 2014.