Yuki Kasai

Yuki Kasai was born in Basel in 1979 and started to play the violin at the age of five. She was a student of the "Konzertklasse" of Rafael Oleg at the Basel Music Academy and was a post-graduate student of Antje Weithaas at the "Hanns Eisler" Academy of Music in Berlin. Other important influences were Sandor Zöldy on the violin and chamber music lessons with Gerard Wyss and Hatto Beyerle, as well as masterclasses with Lorand Fenyves and Ferenc Rados.

Yuki Kasai has received many prizes, such as from the Hans Huber Foundation Basel in 2002 and the "Migros-Kulturprozent" Scholarship in 2003 and 2004. In 2002 she was a prizewinner of the 8^th International Mozart Competition in Salzburg. Standing in for the regular violinist of the Trio Castell, in 2004 she won the chamber music competition ot the Alice Samter Foundation Berlin.

A passionate chamber musician, Yuki Kasai has appeared at many festivals: Mecklenburg-Vorpommern; Rheingau; Ultraschall Festival for New Music in Berlin; Forget in Quebec, Canada; "Sommets Musicaux" in Gstaad, Switzerland; Open Chamber Music Weeks at Pruissia Cove and Cheltenham in England, and she has appeared in concerts at the Wigmore Hall in London partnering musicians such as Stephen Isserlis, Pekka Kuusisto and Joshua Bell. With the Italian bassoonist Sergio Azzolini, who introduced her to the variety and vivacity of performing Baroque music on period instruments, she has appeared in concerts in Germany, Switzerland and Italy.

In 2006, Yuki Kasai was appointed Leader of the "Kammerakademie Potsdam" and the Ensemble Oriol Berlin. She also plays as a regular guest in the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and as Guest Leader of the "Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen", the "Ensemble Resonanz" in Hamburg and the "Orchestra Lorenzo da Ponte" in Padova.