Mozart Matinee #67

Gen Ohta was born in Sapporo, Japan in 1994 and began studying cello and piano at an early age. He graduated with honors from the Conducting Department of the Tokyo University of the Arts, where he also completed his Master's degree in Conducting at the Graduate School of Music. In 2015, he won Second Prize and the Audience Award at the 17th Tokyo International Music Competition for Conducting.

He studied conducting with Tadaaki Otaka and Ken Takaseki, and composition with Junichi Nihashi. Since April 2023, he has served as Conductor of the Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra, and in April 2024 he assumed the position of Principal Conductor of the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra.

In February 2021, his recording of Schubert's Symphony No. 8 (9) “The Great” with the New Japan Philharmonic was released on Octavia Records to critical acclaim. In 2025, Ohta received the prestigious Saito Hideo Memorial Fund Award (Conducting Division), becoming the youngest recipient in the award's history.

Shio Okui started playing piano at 5½, studied with Elena Ashkenazy from age 7, and made her orchestral debut at 8. At 12 she performed with the Mariinsky Orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev, at 15 she was appointed soloist for the European tour of the Moscow Virtuosi chamber orchestra, and made her debut in prestigious European concert halls such as the Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Musikverein.

Shio has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the Russian National Orchestra, the National Philharmonic of Russia, and in Japan with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.

Shio has won numerous prizes, including the Vladimir Krainev Moscow International Piano Competition, the Paderewski International Piano Competition.

After graduating from the Central Music School of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, and the Gnessin Special School of Music in Moscow, she currently studies at the Haute école de musique de Genève supported by scholarships from the Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation, the ROHM Music Foundation, and the International Piano Foundation Theo and Petra Lieven of Hamburg.