Akiko Miyazawa is the artistic director of Cygnus Arioso and a member of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. She was born in Japan and began studying the violin at age three. She completed her Bachelor and Master of Music at the Kyoto City University of Arts, winning the faculty award in 2007. She studied violin with Midori Kugota and chamber music with Noboru Kamimura and Kyoko Shikata. During this time, she performed regularly with the Hyogo PAC Orchestra, the Kyoto Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, and the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra. She was invited to give solo performances at the Izumi Hall, Osaka and the Kirishima International Music Festival in Kagoshima. During her Masters, Akiko undertook an exchange year to Germany to study with the leading Polish Violinist Magdalena Rezler at the Freiburg Hochschule für Musik. After finishing her studies in Kyoto, she returned once more to Freiburg, where she completed a Diploma of Advanced Studies with assistance from the Scholarship of Baden-Württemberg. She also held a practicum position in the first violin section of the Philharmonisches Orchester Stadttheater Freiburg. In 2011, she then took up a second violin contract with the Deutsches Nationaltheater, Staatskapelle in Weimar.
