Reiko Ichise is a viola da gamba player from Tokyo. She begins her musical training as a pianist before studying musicology at Kunitachi College of Music, where she starts to play the viola da gamba and studies with Yukimi Kanbe and Tetsuya Nakano.

In 1991, she moves to Britain to continue her viola da gamba studies with Richard Boothby, a founding member of Fretwork. At the Royal Conservatory of Music, she wins the concerto prize and completes her postgraduate study with distinction.

Performance career

Ichise performs widely in the UK as a chamber musician and soloist, with appearances at the Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall and the Royal Opera House. She works with conductors and ensembles including Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists, Sir David Willcocks and the English Chamber Orchestra, Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort, and Kurt Masur and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Ensembles and recordings

Since 2001, she has been a core member of Florilegium. She also works regularly with early music groups including Concordia, Passacaglia, Charivari Agreable and the Early Opera Company.

Her chamber music recordings appear on Lynn, Metronome, ASV and deux-elles.