Will Haapaniemi is a violinist born in Los Angeles of Finnish ancestry. He joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2014 alongside his wife and violinist Heidi Han. Will wanted to be a violinist from the time he was little more than 2 years old, when he saw Itzhak Perlman play on Sesame Street. Many other interests competed with practice time—some of his favorites being the martial art Capoeira and Wing Chun, dance, and training for his glider pilot license.
Will has played all over the world as a soloist, chamber musician, leading violin sections and participating in them. The South Florida Classical Review described one concerto performance as “displaying a musical intelligence… playfulness and occasional brutality.” He has earned top prizes at the Lennox International Competition, Five Towns Music Competition, the Eisenberg-Fried Concerto Competition, the Lillian Fuchs Chamber Music Competition, and others.
Having a love for the outdoors, Will hikes hundreds of miles in the summer, rock climbs with his friends, and flies planes when he’s not playing the violin. Will plays a 1968 Sergio Peresson violin.
Born in Tokyo, Japan, Tomoko Mack began her piano studies at age 5, and performed in public at age 7. She fell in love with the sound of the piano at a young age and it hasn’t changed!
Tomoko came to the United States at age 10, and continued her studies, performing and competing at regional, national and International competitions. She won 1st place with her sister Yuki in Tokyo International duo competition, and a special “Kodama” prize from the founder of the competition.
She was also a top prize winner with her sister in the Dranoff International duo competition in Miami, Florida. She has recorded four acclaimed CDs with her sister. Her recordings are available on CD Baby and also through her website.
Tomoko is an active performer, teacher, and she is also frequently invited to adjudicate at major piano competitions in the U.S.A. and Japan. Tomoko has served since 2010 as the artistic director for the Steinway Society of Michigan.
Every summer she travels to Poland to teach, perform and co-direct with her husband, pianist Kazimierz Brzozowski the International Piano Festival in Nałęczów. They spend two summer months in their second home in a quaint old town of Kazimierz Dolny enjoying family life and preparing new repertoire.
Tomoko is a co-founder of the International Piano Festival in Nałęczów, Poland and she received a Commissioner’s Medal of Honor from the Ministry of Education in 2021 in Warsaw.
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