Spotlight | Principal Second Violin

Tamamo Someya Gibbs

Tamamo Someya Gibbs began taking violin lessons at the age of 3. At age 6 she entered the Tokyo College of Music Prep School, where she received training in violin performance, aural skills and music theory. Her secondary and post-secondary education took place at Toho High School and Toho College of Music under the tutelage of Kenji Kobayashi. Upon graduation, she played for the Shinsei Japan Symphony Orchestra for several months before the New World Symphony in Miami Beach invited her to join as a co-principal violinist. In 1995, Gibbs joined the Sacramento Symphony as a core first violinist, and in 1996 joined the first violin section of the Kansas City Symphony. In 1999, she was appointed principal second violinist of the Kansas City Symphony as well as named co-concertmaster of the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra. She has performed in Japan, the United States, France, Monaco, Israel, Brazil and Argentina, and participated in numerous music festivals including the Evian Music Festival in France, the National Repertory Orchestra in Colorado, the Kent/Blossom Music Festival in Ohio, and the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming. Past solo engagements include appearances with the National Repertory Orchestra, the Penn’s Woods Music Festival Orchestra, the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, the Overland Park Orchestra and the Kansas City Symphony. She currently resides in Overland Park, Kansas, with her husband, Mark Gibbs (principal cellist of the Kansas City Symphony), and their two children.