Tatsuki Sasanuma is a Japanese cellist, prizewinner of major international competitions including the ARD in Munich and the Salzburg Mozart Competition. He performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician in international festivals across Europe, Japan and Australia, and collaborates with leading artists such as Martha Argerich and Maxim Vengerov. He was also awarded a scholarship to pursue an Artist Diploma at the Pernoo School of Musical Performance.
Tatsuki Sasanuma was awarded third prize and a special prize at the 65th ARD International Music Competition in Munich in the string quartet category. In 2019, he won first prize at the Young Concert Artists Auditions in New York, becoming the first Japanese string quartet to receive this distinction in 50 years, following the Tokyo Quartet.
He has won first prize at the 65th Japan Student Music Competition, second prize at the 12th Tokyo Music Competition, and was a prizewinner at the 83rd Japan Music Competition, among many other national and international distinctions.
As a soloist, he has performed with major Japanese orchestras including the New Japan Philharmonic, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, as well as with the Prague National Theatre Orchestra and the Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra.
As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with internationally renowned artists such as Martha Argerich, Haruko Ueda, Đặng Thái Sơn, Maxim Vengerov, Ivry Gitlis, Mischa Maisky, Emmanuel Pahud, Jörg Widmann, and the Jerusalem Quartet. He has performed in ensembles including the La Luce String Octet, the Amabile Quartet, and the Rizzle Trio. He is also an artist of Chanel Pygmalion and Music Dialogue, and completed his training at the NHK Symphony Orchestra Academy.
He received the Cultural Activity Award from Gakushuin University, where his recital was attended by the Emperor and Empress of Japan. He has also received numerous other distinctions, including prizes from the Kirishima International Music Festival, the Music Director’s Award, and the 22nd Hotel Okura Music Award.
He graduated with honors from the Toho Gakuen Music High School (girls’ division), then completed the soloist diploma at the Toho Gakuen School of Music, and earned a degree in German Cultural Studies from Gakushuin University. After postgraduate studies at Toho Gakuen, he continued as a scholarship student in the postgraduate program at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, where he is currently enrolled in the elite program. He studied with Václav Adamíra, Nobuo Furukawa, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Henri Demarquette, and Jérôme Pernoo, and also studied chamber music with Kazuhide Isomura, Heiichiro Oyama, Nobuko Yamazaki, and the Jerusalem Quartet.
In 2019, he released his debut album Words of Affection on Nippon Columbia, which was selected as a recommended recording by Record Art magazine.
In 2022, he organized performances of Bach’s solo cello suites in Fukuoka and Tokyo. In June and July 2023, he appeared as a soloist with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra under Daniel Raiskin in Bratislava and on tour in Japan. In September, a live recording of his concert at Suntory Hall was released. He also serves as guest principal cellist of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.
He performs on a 1771 C.F. Landolfi cello (Munetsugu Collection).
