Hiroki Kasai

Hiroki Kasai

Born in London, Great Britain, in 1999. Since 2023, he studies at the Reina Sofía School of Music’s Fundación BBVA Viola Chair with professor Nobuko Imai. He has been granted scholarships by Lynne and David Weinberg and Fundación Albéniz.

He has performed extensively across Europe, Asia, Australia, and the United States, where he has given concerts in prestigious venues, such as the Elbphilharmonie, Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Tokyo Suntory Hall, Lincoln Centre, and Barbican Centre. He has appeared at prominent music festivals such as the Beethovenfest Bonn, Marlboro Music, Pablo Casals, Schleswig-Holstein, and Gstaad Menuhin Festivals.

In 2024, he won 1st prize at the International Johannes Brahms Competition in Austria. Hiroki has received awards from the British Royal Philharmonic Society. As a soloist, he has performed with orchestras in the United States, Europe, and Japan, under the baton of conductors such as Ton Koopman. His performances have been broadcasted worldwide by NDR (Germany), RNE (Spain), and the National Public Radio in the US.

Hiroki graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in London with First Class Honours in 2021 as a violinist, studying under the tutelage of Rodney Friend. He continued his studies on the violin at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland. In 2022, Hiroki started playing the viola after a strong recommendation from Nobuko Imai. He has received further instructions on the violin and the viola from renowned musicians such as Aaron Rosand, Sir George Benjamin, Kolja Blacher, James Ehnes, Rainer Schmidt, Josef Spacek, Mi-Kyung Lee, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Kim Kashkashian, and Steven Isserlis.

As an avid chamber musician, he has performed chamber music with eminent musicians such as Midori, Lawrence Power, Mitsuko Uchida, Sayaka Shoji, Ivan Monighetti, Bruno Delepelaire, Nobuko Imai, Thomas Riebl, Christoph Richter, and the members of the Guarneri Quartet. He has participated in the Marlboro Music Festival and Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music. He is also a student of the renowned chamber music academies, such as the Seiji Ozawa International Academy in Switzerland and Villa Musica Rheinland-Pfalz. In 2024, Hiroki went on an extended string quartet tour to Laos and Japan with Midori through her Music Sharing program.
In 2025, Hiroki will be joining two Musicians from Marlboro tours where he will perform in Canada and the US, including recitals at Carnegie Hall. He has received chamber music classes from Nobuko Imai, Gabor Takacs-Nagy, Sadao Harada, Robert Levin, Marie Chilemme, and Suyoen Kim.

As an orchestral musician, he has led orchestras such as the Royal Academy Symphony Orchestra and the Schleswig Holstein Festival Orchestra. He has also been a guest violinist with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and has performed under the baton of eminent conductors such as Valéry Gergiev, Christophe Eschenbach, Manfred Honeck, and Semyon Bychkov.

As a student of the School, he has been a member of the Stoneshield Quartet. He is currently part of the Strauss Quartet.