News
13 November 2025
Awarded the Shinji Hattori Music Award Rising Star
Yo Kitamura has been awarded the 8th Hattori Shinji Music Award Rising Star. This award aims to create an environment for young musicians in the field of music who aspire to the world stage and continue to challenge themselves, enabling them to achieve even greater success.
3 August 2025
Awarded the Prix the Jean-Nicolas Firmenich
at Verbier Festival Academy
Yo Kitamura has been awarded for the most promising young cellist at the 2025 Verbier Festival Academy in Switzerland.
24 March 2025
Yo Kitamura has been awarded the 34th Idemitsu Music Award.
Yo Kitamura has been awarded the 34th Idemitsu Music Award.
This award was established in 1990 by Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd. to support promising and emerging young musicians, with the aim of contributing to the advancement of musical culture in Japan.
5 March 2025
Yo Kitamura has been awarded the 23rd Saito Hideo Memorial Fund Award.
Yo Kitamura ç the 23rd Saito Hideo Memorial Fund Award in the cello category. In the conducting category, Gen Ota received the award, making both of them the youngest recipients in the history of the prize.
Established in 2002 by the Sony Music Foundation, this award honors the legacy of the late Hideo Saito, a renowned cellist, conductor, and educator. It is presented to young cellists and conductors who have contributed to the development of music, art, and culture and are expected to achieve even greater success in the future.
7 February 2025
The Strad has published an article about the George Enescu International Competition!
31 January 2025
Yo Kitamura received the 26th Hotel Okura Music Award
Yo Kitamura has been awarded the 26th Hotel Okura Music Award. Established in 1996 to commemorate the 35th anniversary of Hotel Okura, this prestigious award recognizes and supports outstanding musicians who have demonstrated remarkable achievements in recent years and show great promise for the future.
18 January 2025
Selected as the No. 1 “Most Promising Newcomer of 2024” in ONGAKU NO TOMO
Yo Kitamura was voted No.1 ‘Most Anticipated Newcomer of 2024’ by music critics in the special feature ‘Concert Top Ten & Best Artists 2024’ in the February 2025 issue of the classical music magazine ‘ONGAKU NO TOMO’.
10 January 2025
Tokitada Sakai Music Award Recipient
Yo Kitamura has been selected for the “Tokitada Sakai Music Award” by the Hyogo Prefectural Arts and Culture Association, which recognizes outstanding musical activities within the prefecture and honors promising young musicians expected to excel in the future.
16 November 2024
Yo Kitamura won First Prize at Pablo Casals International Award
Yo Kitamura won first prize at Pablo Casals International Award, one of the most prestigious international competitions for young cellists.
Organized by the Pau Casals Foundation, this competition, named after Casals, is held every two years in El Vendrell, Catalonia, the birthplace of the legendary cellist. The final audition took place on 16 November 2024.
In 2023, Yo Kitamura won the International Johannes Brahms Competition and the 92th Japan Music Competition.In September 2024, he attracted international attention when he became the first Japanese to win the Georges Enescu International Competition, one of the most important competitions in the world.
10 September 2024
Yo Kitamura won George Enescu International Competition 2024
Yo Kitamura achieved a remarkable accomplishment by becoming the first Japanese to win the cello division of the George Enescu International Competition 2024. The cello final took place on September 10 at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest, Romania. Kitamura played Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B minor alongside the Romanian National Radio Orchestra, conducted by Jonathan Bloxham.
Biography
Yo Kitamura was born in Japan in 2004.
In 2024, he won the 1st prize at both the George Enescu International Competition and the Pablo Casals International Award.
His performance at the competition was praised by the distinguished British music magazine The Strad, which stated, “Kitamura is an undeniable musical talent.”
In 2023, he won the 1st prize and the special prize at the 29th International Johannes Brahms Competition and the 1st prize and five special prizes at the 92nd Japan Music Competition, the most prestigious in Japan. He won the 2nd prize at the 2022 Khachaturian International Competition, and the 1st prize unanimously at the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in 2017.
He has studied with Prof. Jens-Peter Maintz at the Berlin University of the Arts and Prof. Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi at Toho Gakuen College of Music.
Since 2018, he has participated in the Kronberg Academy three times as an active participant. He has also attended the Cello Academy Rutesheim, the Blackmore International Music Academy, and the Verbier Festival Academy. To date, he has taken masterclasses from many distinguished cellists, including Wolfgang Boettcher, Philippe Muller, David Geringas, Mischa Maisky, Steven Isserlis, Alban Gerhardt, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Claudio Bohórquez, and Nicolas Altstaedt.
At the age of 9, he made his concerto debut, and at 11, his Suntory Hall debut, performing Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C major. He has performed with numerous professional orchestras and collaborated with conductors Manfred Honeck, Sebastian Weigle, Giovanni Antonini, Alfredo Sorichetti, Piotr Jaworski, Jonathan Bloxham, Andrei Feher, Kenichiro Kobayashi, Ken Takaseki, Naoto Otomo, Sachio Fujioka, and Kazuki Yamada, and many more.
In 2020, he earned outstanding reviews when he substituted for Julian Steckel in a concert conducted by Michiyoshi Inoue with Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra.
He was awarded the Idemitsu Music Award, the Prix Jean-Nicolas Firmenich at Verbier Festival Academy, the Saito Hideo Memorial Fund Award, the Hotel Okura Music Award, the Shinji Hattori Music Award Rising Star, the Tokitada Sakai Music Award, the Arion Music Award, and the Kirishima International Music Festival Award.
He is a recipient of the 52nd Ezoe Memorial Recruit Foundation scholarship and the ROHM Music Foundation scholarship.
He plays an A. Casini (1668) on loan from Ueno Fine Chemicals Industry, Ltd., and a J.P.M. Persoit bow from the Sumino Hiroshi Collection.
Media
Kitamura is an undeniable musical talent, and while his playing was veiled in humility, the pure, unbridled joy within him was finally released in a triumphant and ovation-deserving finale.
— The Strad
Exceptional in Technique, Musicality, and Tone.
— Weekly Economist
Lush, richly singing strings echoed through the intimate hall, and I couldn't take my ears off the music for a moment until the finale.
A cellist has emerged who makes you want to keep listening.
— MOSTLY CLASSIC
The music was performed with extraordinary concentration and spirit, and there was not the slightest moment of forceful, twisting and turning with technique.
— ONGAKU NO TOMO
It won't be long before Yo Kitamura's unique music is recognised worldwide through diverse exchanges that transcend generations and nationalities.
— Sarasate
Photos
Videos
Dvorak: Cello Concerto
Haydn: Cello Concerto No.1 C major 1st mov.
Khachaturian: Concerto-Rhapsody
Haydn: Cello Concerto No.1 C major 3rd mov.
Concerts
Yo Kitamura Cello Recital
8 March 2026
14:00
Yonago Culture Hall
Cello: Yo Kitamura
Piano: Naoko Sonoda
Hyogo Performing Arts Center OrchestraSubscription Concert No.168
13, 14, 15 March
2026
15:00Hyogo Performing Arts Center Kobeico Large Hall
Conductor: Pietari Inkinen
Cello: Yo Kitamura
Sibelius:Symphonic poem "Pohjola's daughter" op.49
Prokofiev:Symphonic Concerto in E minor op.125
Sibelius:Symphony No.2 in D major op.43
PAST CONCERTS
Classic Yokohama IKIRU〜A Concert to Support Young Lives 2026 New Year〜
25 January 2026
Yokohama Minato Mirai Hall
Conductor: Kosuke Tsunoda
Orchestra: Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra
Cello: Yo Kitamura
Piano: Yoko Kikuchi
Idemitsu Music Award Winners Gala Concert
21 January 2026
Showa Women's University Hitomi Memorial HallConductor: Kentaro KawaseTokyo Philharmonic OrchestraCello: Yo Kitamura
