Miru Shimaoka

Miru Shimaoka is a member of our casual presenter team in Wellington. He is keen to share his love of music with listeners all around the motu.

Miru is a violinist and violin teacher. He graduated from the New Zealand of Music in 2023 with first-class Honours and is currently teaching at the Wellington Music Centre and for the Sistema-inspired programme Arohanui Strings.

He plays for the Hawkes Bay Orchestra and smaller ensembles including the Polish folk band, Krackerjack. Some of his favourite musical experiences have been at the Adam Summer School of Music, the NZSO National Youth Orchestra, and the Wellington Youth Orchestra, where he was concertmaster in 2023.

Miru is passionate about the human-to-human connection and care that comes about through music and aims to foster those moments in all his musical work, whether it be performance, collaboration or teaching. Drawn in by this aspect of music, Miru is also fascinated by music therapy.

Outside of music, Miru’s interests include cooking, art, and hiking, and he is fascinated by etymology.