Motomi with the lirone by John Pringle, photo by Joanne Bouknight

Motomi Igarashi, a native of Japan, has played the double bass since she was 12. She received first prize at the Aspen Music Festival Double Bass competition, has given double bass solo recitals and appears as a concert soloist with orchestras in the USA, England and Japan.

Motomi studied double bass with Eugine Levinson and for the chamber music, was coached by Jonathan Feldman while she was at the Juilliard School.

After graduating from the Juilliard school in 1992, she went to France to study viola da gamba. She traveled throughout Europe and spent several years in intensive study of baroque style Music with Marianne Muller, Wieland Kuijken, and Paolo Pandolfo. Motomi currently studies lirone with Erin Headley.

Motomi came back from Paris in 1997 and she has been playing the viola da gamba, violone, the baroque double bass and lirone with various groups such as The American Classical Orchestra, the Concert Royal, Arts Antiqua, Artek, BEMF, Foundling Orchestra, Handel and Haydn Society, Long Island Baroque, Philomel, and Bach Collegium Japan, both on the East coast and in Japan and Motomi is a founding member of Anima, a Baroque ensemble.