Rio Arai

Rio Arai was born in Tokyo in 1999. She attended the Tokyo University of the Arts on a special scholarship and graduated at the top of her class, and received the Acanthus Award and the Mitsubishi Estate Award, granted towards outstanding students at the university. She is also the recipient of the Fukushima Scholarship, Ataka Scholarship, and Miyata Ryohei Scholarship. In 2017, Rio received the Tokyo University of the Arts Munetsugu Tokuji Special Scholarship. She is a graduate of Haute École de Musique de Lausanne.

Rio has won several prestigious competitions such as First Prize in string section and the Audience Prize at the 15th Tokyo Music Competition, First Prize in violin section, Leucadia Prize, Sumi Prize, and Kuroyanagi Prize at the 87th Japan Music Competition. She placed 6th in the violin section of the 7th Sendai International Music Competition.

She has been awarded the Excellence Award of the 11th Music Academy in Miyazaki (2018), the IMA Music Prize at the 2018 Ishikawa Music Academy, and the Excellence Award and Music Director’s Award at the 12th Music Academy in Miyazaki (2019).

Photo1: ©️Takahiro Sakai