Akemi was born in Tokyo and began piano lessons at age 3. She graduated from the prestigious Musashino Music College in 1985 and studied further with Deborah Sobol of the Chicago Chamber Musicians. In 1990, Akemi attended chamber music classes of clarinetists John Yeh (Chicago Symphony Orchestra) and Michael Arringnon (Professor-Paris Conservatoire). She has taught and performed in Japan and Australia in both Concerto and Recital roles, and in collaboration with Hiroyuki Iwaki’s Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa in its chamber music series from 1990-1995.

In 2002, she appeared in a live broadcast on the ABC with her trio Ensemblinx, and performed with her husband, clarinetist Robert Schubert at the Australasian Clarinet & Saxophone Conference in Brisbane in July of that year.

Akemi is a sought after teacher and accompanist and is regularly engaged at the Victorian College of the Arts, the University of Melbourne Faculty of Music, and Monash University Music Department.

The Tinalley String Quartet has rapidly achieved recognition as one of the most exciting young quartets, not only in theivr home of Australia but also on the world stage.

Tinalley was awarded First Prize at the prestigious 9th Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2007 and the Grand Prize at the 2005 Australian Chamber Music Competition, now known as the Asia Pacific Music Competition.

From the Sydney Opera House to the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Quartet has performed to audiences around the world. International highlights have included appearances in Paris, Vienna Musikverein, Berlin Konzerthaus, Hamburg, Nurnberg, Luxembourg, Bremen Die Glocke, Frankfurt AlteOper, Baden-Baden, Utrecht, Vancouver, Calgary, San Jose, San Francisco, San Diego, Toronto and New York. In Australia, the Quartet has appeared in recital for the Melbourne Recital Centre, Sydney Opera House, Musica Viva Australia, and at many of Australia’s premier festivals, including the Port Fairy Festival; Perth International Arts Festival; Canberra International Music Festival; Huntington Festival and the Melbourne International Arts Festival.

The Quartet has premiered numerous works in Australia and North America, namely, quartets by American composer Joan Tower, Hungarian György Kurtág and Dutch composer Louis Andriessen.  The Quartet has also engaged in several ‘crossover’ projects, bridging the world of jazz and classical. Tinalley has performed with Canadian Jazz Trio ‘Fieldtrip’ with whom it has recorded an album of original works for String Quartet and Jazz trio, and more recently has performed with English jazz pianist, Gwilym Simcock.

The Quartet has also collaborated with the Pavel Haas Quartet; English violist Caroline Henbest; Honens Laureate Hinrich Alpers; Australian clarinetists Paul Dean and David Griffiths and members of the Southern Cross Soloists and Australia Ensemble.

Formed in 2003 at The University of Melbourne, the Tinalley String Quartet has been mentored by many of the world’s finest quartets, including members of the Tokyo, St. Lawrence, Keller, Takàcs and Schoenberg String Quartets. Between 2005 – 2007, the Quartet studied at the International Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove, United Kingdom; the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival as part of the Yale Summer School of Music; the St. Lawrence String Quartet Chamber Music Seminar at Stanford University and the Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada. In 2006 Tinalley was based at the Australian National Academy of Music as Visiting Young Artists.

The Quartet has been broadcast in Australia by ABC Classic FM and 3MBS FM while around the world their live recordings have been heard on CBC Canada, SRW2 and HR2 Kultur Germany, Radio France and Public National Radio, The Netherlands.

Tinalley was selected in 2007 as one of ‘Melbourne’s 100 Most Influential People’ in The Age and was nominated in the category of best newcomer in the 2008 Limelight magazine awards. Tinalley’s first commercial CD ‘Beloved of the Gods’ was released in 2009 by Melba Records to critical acclaim.

In 2011, Tinalley will launch its inaugural National Concert Season, presenting three programs at the Sydney Opera House Utzon Room, Melbourne Recital Centre, National Gallery of Australia in Canberra and Elder Hall at the University of Adelaide.  The Series will include collaborations with violist Roger Benedict and cellist Li Wei Qin.