Takehiro Konoe (23)

Takehiro Konoe was born in 1997 in Amsterdam.

He started playing violin at the age of 4 with Professor Coosje Wijzenbeek and at 18 years old he switched to the viola.

Since September 2016 he is studying viola at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Nobuko Imai & Francien Schatborn.

In February 2017 he won the first prize at the 5th National Viola Competition in Amsterdam. June 2018 he became a finalist at the 4th Tokyo International Viola Competition where he was awarded 'Suntory Foundation for Arts' and in September he won the third prize at the 67th ARD International Music Competition at Munich.

Beginning of 2019 He was invited to play the Bowen viola concerto with the Schleswig-Holstein Symphonie Orchester.

Later in October he made his debut in Naples where he played a recital and Hoffmeister concerto with the Chamber orchestra of Caserta, He took part of the String Quartet class at the Seiji Ozawa International Academy Switzerland in 2018 and 2019. In 2020, He won the 1st prize at the 27th Johannes Brahms Competition.

He plays on a copy of a "Carlo Bergonzi" viola made by Roger Hargrave in 1991