ARTISTS

Born in 1986, Gen Yokosaka began to play the cello at the age 4 and studied with Katsuro Washio and Hakuro Mori at the Toho School of Music as well as taking further lessons with David Geringas and Jian Wang at the Ishikawa Music Academy.

 

Gen quickly became known as the most promising cellist of his generation in his native Japan after being awarded the top prize in the string section of the All Japan Classical Music Competition at 12 years old. He went on to win numerous competitions including, at 15, the 2002 Viva Hall Cello Competition in 2002 of which he is the youngest ever winner.

 

Gen Yokosaka has performed with such conductors as Seiji Ozawa, Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Naoto Otomo, Ken Takaseki, Kenichiro Kobayashi and Daisuke Soga with orchestras including the Yomiuri Symphony, New Japan Philharmonic, Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony and Osaka Philharmonic. He has had both recitals and concerto performances broadcast on national TV (NHK and TV Asahi).

 

A dedicated chamber musician, Gen was invited to perform in “Project Q,” Casals Halls’ Complete Beethoven String Quartet series in 2001, also performed Popper’s “Requiem for 3 Cellos and Piano,” Op. 66 with Nobuko Yamazaki and Ryosuke Hori. The pianists he played with include such renowned artists as Kei Ito and Miyuki Washimiya.

 

In 2005 Gen performed in La Folle journée au Japon and took part Pierre Boulez’ Lucerne Festival Academy. In the same year he was presented the Idemitsu Music Award.

 

Gen Yokosaka studied at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart and Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. Gen Yokosaka plays a 1710 cello by Pietro Giacomo Rogeri kindly loaned by the Suntory Foundation.