Violinist Yukiko Ishibashi grew up in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. Her extraordinary talent on the violin was recognized and encouraged at an early age. Yukiko Ishibashi first came to Europe at the age of 14 as a soloist with the Soai Junior Orchestra. She moved to Tokyo as a secondary school pupil, where she was accepted into the renowned Toho Music School. She graduated from the same institution in 1998 with the highest honors as a soloist. She trained as a violinist with Koichiro Harada, the principal violinist of the Tokyo String Quartet, and traveled to Europe and the USA several times to take part in competitions and music festivals. She made her debut with the Toho Gakuen Orchestra under the baton of Jean Fournet.

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Various prizes at the Lipitzer, Fritz Kreisler and Sendai competitions as well as concerts in Aspen, Vienna, Lübeck, Bruges and St. Petersburg adorned the path that led her to Europe after completing her studies in Japan. With Professor Sakhar Bron in Lübeck and then in Professor György Pauk's violin class in Switzerland, Yukiko Ishibashi matured into a sought-after soloist and chamber music partner. In 2002, she graduated as a soloist from the Winterthur University of Music and Performing Arts Zurich (now ZHdK). Yukiko Ishibashi has received scholarships from the Aoyama Foundation and the Rohm Foundation, among others, and has received support from the Japanese Department of Culture.

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Together with violist Ursula Sarnthein and cellist Judith Gerster, Yukiko Ishibashi won first prizes in the 2002 Hug Duttweiler and Kiwanis Chamber Music Competitions for string trio. In 2003 she was awarded 1st prize at the Mozart Competition in Japan. At the age of 25, Yukiko Ishibashi became a member of the first violins in the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and made Switzerland the center of her life. In addition to her part-time work in the Tonhalle Orchestra, Yukiko Ishibashi consistently pursues chamber music projects. The Oreade Trio, which was joined by Ursula Sarnthein and Christine Hu in 2012, won the string trio competition in Munich in 2012 and attracted international attention.

 

From 2017, the three musicians received instruments by Antonius Stradivari on generous loan from the Stradivari Foundation Habisreutinger-Huggler-Coray. The Trio Oreade's third CD with Mozart's Divertimento is a testament to the brilliance and stylistic intelligence of the three musicians and unites the three master instruments on one recording. The Trio Oreade is regularly invited to perform at chamber music festivals in Europe, England and Japan. For example, to Meggenhorn Castle, Melk Abbey, Holzhausen Castle, the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, the Tonhalle Zurich, etc. The trio also seeks out collaborations with renowned artists such as Heinrich Schiff, Thomas Grossenbacher and Giovanni Antonini. The Trio Oreade completed a postgraduate program in Basel with Professor Rainer Schmidt from the Hagen Quartet in 2013-2015. In 2014, the Trio Oreade won the August Pickhart Foundation's chamber music competition.

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Yukiko Ishibashi plays the Stradivarius "King George" from 1710. As chance would have it, this instrument was the first Stradivarius in Japanese ownership 90 years ago. The gifted violinist, conductor and composer Koichi Kishi played the "King George" from 1927-31. During the coronavirus period, Yukiko Ishibashi studied Kishi's work intensively, including compositions, some of which have only survived in his handwriting. In collaboration with the London-based pianist Yuki Negishi and in cooperation with Swiss radio SRF2 Kultur, and supported by the Habisreutinger Stradivari Foundation, the CD with works by the previous owner of the famous Stradivari is currently being produced. Following the duo works for violin and piano, a second CD will feature Kishi's string quartet, which has never before been recorded in Japan.

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In January 2023, Yukiko Ishibashi and friends will perform Toshio Hosokawa's work “Deine Freunde aus der Ferne” for the first time in Switzerland in a chamber music concert in the Great Hall of the Tonhalle Zurich.