Cellist Yo Kitamura wins the 34th Idemitsu Music Award

We are pleased to inform you that the Cellist Yo Kitamura has won the 34th Idemitsu Music Award.

The Idemitsu Music Award was established in 1990 in order to recognize up-and-coming musicians. With the aim of developing promising artists, the award emphasizes motivation, talent, and future potential.

At the age of 13 Yo Kitamura was awarded first prize by unanimous decision in the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians. He subsequently won second prize at the 2022 Khachaturian International Competition, and achieved the remarkable feat of winning first prizes in the 2023 International Johannes Brahms Competition, the 2023 Music Competition of Japan, the 2024 Georges Enescu International Competition, and the 2024 Pablo Casals International Award.
He was awarded the 34th Idemitsu Music Award in recognition of his flexible and captivating tone color and the outstanding solidity and balance of his performance technique, as well his future promise.

Yo Kitamura currently studies with Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi in the Soloist Diploma Course at Toho Gakuen School of Music, and with Jens-Peter Maintz at the Berlin University of the Arts. In 2025 he won the 26th Hotel Okura Music Award and the 23rd Hideo Saito Memorial Fund Award. He plays a 1668 “Casini” cello, on loan from Ueno Fine Chemicals Industry, Ltd.

Please continue to follow Yo Kitamura’s activities.

◆The 34 th Idemitsu Music Award
⇒ https://www.idemitsu.com/en/fun/music_prize/index.html 

◆Yo Kitamura Artist Page
⇒ https://www.japanarts.co.jp/en/artist/yokitamura/