Acclaim

“The exuberant Saeka Matsuyama epitomized the best in modern Juilliard School playing: open-hearted and healthy. A performer of palpable individuality in demeanor as well as musical presentation…Her Beethoven Sonata was blessed by an incandescent sense for musical line, and the Adagio of Brahms’ Concerto reached out with a soulful intensity.” – The Strad

“…you had to marvel at [Saeka Matsuyama’s] interpretive sophistication and drive” – The Philadelphia Inquirer

“…Matsuyama’s luminous tone and wonderfully concentrated lyricism…” – The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Violinist Saeka Matsuyama offered…great passion in a big-hearted take on Bruch’s ‘Scottish Fantasy’…Matsuyama didn’t give in to nostalgia, though, and gave the melodies their rustic due, especially in double-stopped passages that required a folk fiddler’s grit and determination…both she and the orchestra played solidly to the close.” – Haddonfield Courier-Post

“The program succeeded in highlighting new talent, presenting a Juilliard student named Saeka Matsuyama as a lyrical soloist in the last movement of Mozart’s Fifth Violin Concerto.” – The New York Times

“…[a] violinist whose stylish work made an impression was Saeka Matsuyama…with cellist Clancy Newman, [she] gave the Brahms Double a bracing interpretation free of cliches.” – Lesley Valdes, WRTI Critic-at-Large