Masaya Kamei
ITALIAN MANAGEMENT
A revelation of the 2022 Long-Thibaud International Competition, Masaya Kamei offers pianism of exceptional virtuosity and sophistication.
Born in 2001, Masaya Kamei began playing the piano at the age of four. After studying with leading Japanese teachers, he entered the music department of Meiwa High School in Aichi Prefecture. An outstanding student, he went on to Toho Gakuen University, graduating at the top of his class in March 2023. Alongside his studies, he received numerous scholarships, including from the Ezoe Memorial Recruit Foundation and the Rohm Music Foundation, as well as the Yasuko Fukuda Prize. He is currently continuing his studies at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe in the class of Momo Kodama. He also benefits from the guidance of Piotr Anderszewski, Stephen Kovacevich, and Benedetto Lupo, who enrich his musical approach.
Masaya Kamei is a prizewinner of the 88th Music Competition of Japan (1st Prize and Audience Prize in the piano category) and the 43rd PTNA Piano Competition (Grand Prix category, also winning the Audience Prize). He has also received the Japanese Minister of Education Award, the Steinway Prize and the 9th Yasuko Fukuda Prize. In 2022 he won numerous national and international awards, most notably the Grand Prix, the Audience Prize and the Press Prize at the Long-Thibaud International Competition in France. In 2024 he became the 50th recipient of the Chopin Society of Japan Award. In 2025, he was among the top prize winners of the Queen Elisabeth Competition.
He has performed with Japan's most prestigious orchestras, including the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra and the New Japan Philharmonic. In 2023, his Chopin interpretations led him to perform with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra under Andrey Boreyko. That same year, he made his recital debuts at the La Roque d'Anthéron International Piano Festival and the Vilnius Piano Festival. He also toured Japan with the Budapest MÁV Symphony Orchestra under Iván Fischer, performing Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 in eleven concerts. In summer 2024 he was invited to the Grange de Meslay festival, the Lille Piano Festival and the La Roque d'Anthéron festival, where he appeared with the Orchestre Philharmonique de l'Opéra de Marseille under Lawrence Foster. In 2025 he shared the stage with the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra and performed at the Mougins Music Festival, the Festival des Jeunes Talents in Cannes and the Pianos Folies du Touquet.
In the 2025–26 season, Masaya Kamei made his debuts with the Dresden Philharmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia (at La Folle Journée de Nantes 2026), the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, the Belgian National Orchestra (on tour in Japan) and the Camerata of the Berlin Philharmonic. In 2027 he returns to the NHK Symphony Orchestra, among other engagements. Recitals are also scheduled at the Friedrich-Ebert-Halle in Hamburg (as a Steinway guest artist), the Sala Verdi in Milan (in the Serate Musicali series), the Teatro Fraschini in Pavia, the Salle Molière in Lyon and Suntory Hall in Tokyo.
His debut solo album, VIRTUOZO, released in 2022, showcases his virtuosic and sophisticated playing.