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The Kansas City Symphony announced this week that Concertmistress Kanako Ito will resign from her position effective August 31, 2010. Ito has served in her role with the Kansas City Symphony for ten seasons.

Ito is leaving Kansas City to join her husband, Martin Storey, in Glasgow, Scotland, where Martin has won the position of principal cello with the BBC Scottish Orchestra.  Storey begins his new duties in Scotland in May, and Ito and their two children will join him in June at the conclusion of the current symphony season.

Reflecting on her departure, Ito said, "I would like to thank the many kind people who supported me and the Kansas City Symphony. Without an audience who love and support music we could not have achieved so much, and it has been an honor and a joy to play for the Kansas City audience. I will look forward to watching the Symphony's growth from the other side of the world."  

Ito leaves the Kansas City Symphony one season before the opening of the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.  She commented, "I am extremely sad about not being able to play in the new hall, but I am very happy and feel lucky that I have been part of such an era of great changes in the KC Symphony's history. I am sure that the new concertmaster will lead to another great era of music making and I am very excited to think of the Kansas City Symphony's wonderful future."

Music Director Michael Stern commented, "Kanako Ito has been an integral contributor to our orchestra. Since I came in 2005, she has been a marvelous partner in helping to advance the quality of the Kansas City Symphony. I have the highest respect for her as a remarkable violinist, a probing musician, and an exemplary colleague. Working with her both in the orchestra and as a soloist has been a joy."

Symphony Executive Director Frank Byrne said, "We thank Kanako most sincerely for her many contributions to the musical excellence of our orchestra and to the Kansas City region. She is a wonderful musician and equally wonderful colleague.   We will miss her and wish her and Martin all the very best in their future careers."

The process to identify a new concertmaster will begin immediately.    Kanako Ito's final classical subscription concerts with the Symphony will be May 14-16 in concerts conducted by Associate Conductor Steven Jarvi.   She will also perform for the Symphony's annual Contributor's Concert and Bank of America Celebration at the Station, which will be her final appearance with the Kansas City Symphony.

For Michael Stern's final two subscription concerts of the season (May 21-23 and June 4-6), the Symphony will welcome guest concertmasters who will perform all duties of concertmaster for each week and will also play solo repertoire, chamber music, and concertmaster excerpts for the Symphony's audition committee.   The process will continue into the fall when additional guest concertmasters will come to Kansas City for those concerts conducted by Music Director Michael Stern. Byrne said, "Our goal is to have our new concertmaster with us when we begin tuning rehearsals in the Kauffman Center in the Spring of 2011. Michael Stern and I are confident that our acclimation to our new concert hall will be most effective with our new concertmaster in place."

ABOUT KANAKO ITO, MILLER NICHOLS CHAIR
Kanako Ito, Concertmistress of the Kansas City Symphony since 2000, has had a distinguished career as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader. She has won prizes in many international competitions, including the Geneva Competition, the Lexus Violin Competition in New Zealand, the Japanese-American Association Competition in New York, and the Schöntal Violin Competition in Germany. Her solo appearances include performances with the Leningrad State Orchestra, the Suisse Romande Orchestra, Wiener Streicher Solisten, Romania Radio Symphony, the Chautauqua Symphony, the New Zealand Symphony, the Winterthur Orchestra, and the Suk Chamber Orchestra. She has also performed with many of the major orchestras in Japan and has appeared on NHK FM Radio and on Nippon TV (NTV) and NHK TV.

A frequent collaborator in chamber music, Ito is a member of Quartet Accorda, quartet in residence at Park University, and has performed in many formats from duo to octet with established artists around the world. She is a frequent guest artist at the International Music Arts Institute in Maine and the Corbridge Music Festival in the UK. She regularly travels to Europe and Japan, where she continues to give concerts and masterclasses.

A native of northern Japan, she started playing the violin at the age of five. After studying at the Toho-Gakuen Music High School in Tokyo with Ryosaku Kubota and Yoshiharu Kubo, Ito continued her studies at the Paris Conservatoire where her teacher was Michéle Auclair. She then completed the Artist Diploma Program at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where she continued studying with Mme. Auclair. Ito has also taken part in master classes with Eric Rosenblith, Pinchas Zukerman, and Stefan Gheorghiu. After her study, she moved to London where she lived and worked for several years, performed as a member of the chamber ensemble Mobius, and toured with many of the major London orchestras.

Ito has recorded CDs for the Fontec label in Japan. These include the complete sonatas by Saint-Saëns and Grieg with the pianist Phillip Moll. She has also recorded for EMI, ASV and Naxos with Mobius.

ABOUT THE KANSAS CITY SYMPHONY
Led by Music Director Michael Stern, the Kansas City Symphony's 80-member orchestra performs more than 50 concerts on three series (Classical, Family, and Pops) during its 42-week season, September through June. In addition, the Symphony performs non-series concerts such as educational programs, free outdoor concerts, and outreach performances, and serves as the orchestra for the Lyric Opera and Kansas City Ballet. Classical performances are broadcast weekly on KCUR 89.3 FM during the Kansas City Symphony Hour, Thursdays at 9pm. Visit the Kansas City Symphony online at www.kcsymphony.org

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