Biography / プロフィール

Biography in English to be found under Japanese.

伊藤悠貴（チェロ）

センセーショナル…堂々たるテクニックを有し、大家のごとく説得力をもって旋律を奏でる。そのルバートは洗練され、基礎となる和声の動きを知的に補足して完全なものにしている…国際舞台の頂点で通用するチェリスト ― The Strad

ブラームス国際コンクール第1位、ウィンザー祝祭国際弦楽コンクール第1位。2011年イギリスでフィルハーモニア管弦楽団と共演しデビュー。弦楽器専門誌の世界的権威『The Strad』において「センセーショナル…国際舞台の頂点で通用するチェリスト」と評され、これまでに国内はもとより、ウィグモア・ホール、ロイヤル・フェスティバル・ホール、マリニー劇場、マルチェッロ劇場、シュレスヴィヒ＝ホルシュタイン音楽祭、ミラベル宮殿、ムジークへボウ、ツァンカル・センター、クロアチア・ツアー、テジョン芸術センターなど世界各国のコンサートホールでリサイタルや協奏曲に客演。チェロ協奏曲《カサノヴァ》の演奏は、作曲者である巨匠ヨハン・デ・メイより「私の理想を体現する最高のチェリスト」と絶賛され、2025年、氏指揮のもとサントリーホールにて管弦楽版を世界初演。同曲および、委嘱・献呈作品《エレジーとスケルツォ：ラフマニノフへのオマージュ》を含むアルバム『デ・メイ：チェロ作品全集』がワールドワイド・リリースされている。また、英国王室エドワード王子より直々に招待を受け御前演奏や、ボリショイ・バレエ団のプリンシパル、スヴェトラーナ・ザハロワとも共演するなど幅広い活動を展開。リュブリャナ音楽院（スロヴェニア）などからマスタークラス講師として招かれる他、2025年パリFLAME国際音楽コンクールでは史上最年少審査員長を務めた。テレビ朝日「題名のない音楽会」、日本テレビ「news zero」、NHKテレビ「名曲アルバム」「クラシック倶楽部」などメディア出演も多数。著書に学術単行本『ラフマニノフ考―チェロ奏者から見たその音楽像―』。第17回齋藤秀雄メモリアル基金賞など受賞歴多数。

Yuki Ito (cellist, conductor, author)

“Sensational…having both commanding technique and a masterfully assured delivery of melody, his rubato is refined and intelligently complements the underlying harmonic movement…he is to establish himself at the pinnacle of the international scene.” (The Strad, UK)

Yuki Ito won 1st prize at both the International Brahms Competition in 2010 and the UK’s most prestigious Windsor Festival International String Competition in 2011, which led him to commence an international career.

Since his debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra in the UK, he has performed around the globe at such venues as Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Theatre Marigny, Teatro Marcello, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Schloss Mirabell’s Marmorsaal, Muziekgebouw, Canker Centre, tour in Croatia, Suntory Hall in Japan and Daejeon Arts Center in Korea, as soloist with esteemed orchestras and to give recitals, as well as a private recital personally invited by HRH the Prince Edward of the UK.

Amongst many distinguished artists with whom he has collaborated, including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Julian Lloyd Webber, Xavier de Maistre, and Svetlana Zakharova, he has established profound musical relationship with the world-renowned composer/conductor Johan de Meij, who praised Yuki Ito’s playing of his Cello Concerto “Casanova”, a work fondly performed by cellists around the globe, as “It is absolute perfection in all aspects…The best version I (the composer) have ever heard in my life”. In 2025 they gave the world-premiere performance of its orchestral version at Suntory Hall with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and released the world-wide album “De Meij : Complete Works for Cello and Orchestra” including a new work “Elegy & Scherzo – A Tribute to Sergei Rachmaninoff” written for and dedicated to Yuki Ito.

His performing career has always been imbued with Rachmaninoff’s music – having released his world-wide debut album “Rachmaninoff : Complete Cello Works” in 2012, he internationally gave “All-Rachmaninoff” recitals every year towards the composer’s 150th birth anniversary in 2023, which was complemented by publishing his first book: a monograph “Thoughts on Rachmaninoff”.

As conductor Yuki Ito made his conducting debut at London’s St Martin-in-the-Fields in 2013, and in 2016 he led the initial Japan tour of Camerata Luanda from Republic of Angola to success, a historical event which marked the first tour in Japan ever by an African orchestra.

In recent years he has been invited to give masterclass by conservatoires such as Ljubljana Academy of Music, Slovenia, and in 2025 he served as the youngest chairman of the jury at International Music Competition “FLAME” in Paris.

He was awarded the “Hideo Saito Memorial Award” in 2019, one of the most honourable music awards in Japan, for his service to music.

Yuki Ito plays a cello “Maragarites” made by Paolo Antonio Testore (Milan, c.1755).