CELLO 2017 : Second Prize
Born in Tokyo in 1994, Yuya Okamoto
had his first cello lessons at the age of six. In 2009, he was awarded the ‘Diploma of Merit’ at the Gaspar Cassado International Competition in Tokyo. He studied at the Faculty of Music of Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai) under Nobuko Yamazaki and later at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich under Wen-Sinn Yang. He has taken part in masterclasses given by, among others, Wolfgang Boettcher, Natalia Gutman, and Jens Peter Maintz. He won First Prize in the Music Competition of Japan in 2011 and received ‘Honorable Mention’ at the Witold Lutosławski International Cello Competition in 2015. He has performed as a soloist with many Japanese ensembles, including the Ensemble of Tokyo, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.
Instrument : Paolo Antonio Testore (1746)
Teachers
2013-ongoing Wen-Sinn Yang
2006-2013 Nobuko Yamazaki
2001-2004 Hans-Jürgen Seefluth
Degrees
2013-ongoing Bachelor expected in July 2017 - University of Music and Performing Arts (Munich)
2010-2013 graduated - Music High school attached to the Faculty of Music, Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai)
Concerts
2016 Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall - Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Tadaaki Otaka (dir.)
2015 Kure Culture Promotion Foundation, Kure Culture Hall - Michie Koyama (piano)
2015 Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Arts Foundation, Kioi Hall Tokyo - Akira Eguchi (piano)
2014 Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Arts Foundation, Kioi Hall Tokyo - Rikuya Terashima (piano)
2014 Sumida Triphony Hall - New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Ken Takaseki (piano)
2013 Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture, Hoya Komorebi Hall - Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Hikaru Ebihara (dir.)
2013 Japan Federation of Musicians, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan - Kazune Shimizu (piano)
2012 Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture, Parthenon Tama - Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Toshiaki Umeda (dir.)
2011 NHK, The Mainichi Newspapers, Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall - Ensemble of Tokyo, Kazuki Yamada (dir.)
2011Japan Cello Society, Suntory Hall
Competitions
2015 X Witold Lutoslawski International Cello Competition - Honorable Mention
2011 The 80th Music Competition of Japan - 1st Prize, Audience-, Masuzawa-, Kuroyanagi-, and Tokunaga Prize
2009 Gaspar Cassado International Cello Competition - Diploma of Merit
2004 Jugend musiziert - 1st Prize, special Prize of the Bayerischer Rundfunk