Parker Quartet and Kikuei Ikeda
The Grammy Award–winning Parker Quartet began its professional touring career in 2002 and garnered international acclaim in 2005, winning the Concert Artists Guild Competition as well as the grand prix and Mozart Prize at the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition in France.
Kikuei Ikeda, violinist, was born in Yokosuka and studied violin at the Toho Academy of Music with Saburo Sumi and Josef Gingold and chamber music with Hideo Saito. While still living in Japan, he performed as soloist with the Yomiuri Symphony and the Tokyo Metropolitan and Tokyo Symphony orchestras and toured Europe as concertmaster of the Toho String Orchestra. Mr. Ikeda was a prizewinner in the Mainichi-NHK and Haken competitions in Japan, the Washington International Competition for Strings in Washington, D.C., and the Vienna da Motta in Portugal.