Mieko Kanno first came to international attention in the 1980s when she won prizes in international competitions such as the Carl Flesch, Queen Elisabeth of Belgium and Hannover. Since then she has been a prime exponent of new music for violin throughout Europe and given many first performances as soloist as well as in ensembles.
She has a parallel career as musician and academic, and is dedicated in both capacities to the development of a new practice in music. She is especially known for her pioneering work on subjects such as complex notation and microtonality, and her research ranges from performing on the Violectra electric violin with electronics and commissioning works for it, to a long-term project on John Cage’s Freeman Etudes.