Shunta Morimoto

Shunta Morimoto was born in Kyoto, Japan in December 2004. From a very early age, he showed his remarkable pianistic gifts. At the age of twelve, he won the prestigious First Prize of the Piano Teachers Association of Japan, as well as the Fukuda Scholarship Award, one of the most important prizes for a Japanese musician today. This Scholarship allowed him to study with some of the leading pianists and pedagogues in the world. He took part in the Van Cliburn Junior Competition in Dallas, Texas in May 2019 to much public acclaim and his extraordinary performances went viral on the internet gaining him a large global following of admirers, musicians, and critics.

Since then he has performed with leading chamber ensembles, musicians, and orchestras in Japan and abroad. In November 2021, the phenomenal success of his recital in the historic hall of Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome was one of the highlights of his early career. In February 2022, at the age of 17, from over 300 competitors, he was awarded unanimously the First Prize in the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition, playing the Schumann Piano Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He has given concerts in England, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, USA, and Japan, performing solo repertoire, chamber music, and piano concertos.

In January 2023, he performed Beethoven’s 4th piano concerto with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra in Orange County, California, and also received the Parnassus Society Medal Award. He also gave four performances of this concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in England. In October 2023, he performed the Rhapsody by the Theme of Paganini with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.

He currently studies with Maestro William Grant Naboré at the world-famous International Piano Academy in Lake Como, Italy, and participates in the Masterclasses of the Academy as the youngest student in the history of this venerable institution. He has been awarded the Yamaha Scholarship for his studies at Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, where he is enrolled in the class of Piano Accompaniment with Maestro Giovanni Velluti. In Japan He studies with Prof. Shōhei Sekimoto with whom he has been studying since he was 8 years old.