Takehiro Konoe - Violist

Born in 1997 and raised in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, violist Takehiro Konoe studied with Nobuko Imai and Francien Schatborn at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. He started playing violin at the age of four with Professor Coosje Wijzenbeek.

Takehiro won the third prize of ARD International Music Competition in 2023 and 2018. He is the first prize winner of the 2023 Osaka Chamber Music Competition with the Capybara Piano Quartet, 2022 Oscar Nedbal Competition, 2020 Johannes Brahms Competition and 2017 National Viola Competition in Amsterdam. He is also a finalist in the 2018 4th Tokyo International Viola Competition, where he was awarded the Suntory Foundation for Arts Prize.

He has performed internationally as both a soloist and chamber musician. His solo performances with orchestra include the BR Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Schleswig-Holstein Symphonie Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Caserta in Naples.

Many of Takehiro’s performances have been with his twin sister Mayu, both a violinist and violist. They have extensively performed together, with stage appearances at the Kinder Prinsengracht Concert in Amsterdam, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and the Musica Classica International Music Festival at Joao Pessoa in Brazil. Takehiro and Mayu won the first prize at the 2015 Prinses Christina Competition, where they subsequently performed Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with the Hague Philharmonic Orchestra and Sinfonietta Rotterdam.

He and his sister performed Schumann’s Piano Quintet with Lucas Jussen in a masterclass with Menahem Pressler, and Dvorak’s String Quintet with the Rubens Quartet. They have appeared in performances with world- renowned pianists such as Menahem Pressler, Nino Gvetadze, and Paolo Giacometti.

He has studied at the Seiji Ozawa International Academy in Geneva every year from 2018 to 2022. He is currently an academist at the Karajan-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker. Most recently, He has been selected as the Artist in Residence for the Grachtenfestival 2025.

Takehiro performs on a copy of a Carlo Bergonzi viola made by Roger Hargrave in 1991.