Mei Kaneko

Mei Kaneko was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 2005, and commenced her study of the violin with Hitomi Isayama. Beginning in 2016, she received instruction with Mami Teshigawara at the Music School for Children, part of the music department of the Toho Gakuen College in Tokyo. In 2021, she continued her studies in a degree program for soloists in the music department of the Toho Gakuen College with Prof. Akiko Tatsumi. She has studied at the mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna since 2025 under Prof. Lothar Strauss.

Mei Kaneko was the youngest participant at the Leonidas Kavakos International Violin and Chamber Music Masterclass 2018/2019 in Athens. In 2023, she completed the masterclass of the Kirishima International Music Festival, where she received the Kirishima International Music Festival Award. In 2017 she participated in the Italian competition Il Piccolo Violino Magico, where she received a special prize. She won first prize and a special prize at the Suntory Foundation for the Arts Musical Instrument Loaning Program at the 75th Student Music Concours of Japan in 2021. She also won the first prize and the audience prize as part of the 22nd Tokyo Music Competition, as well as the second prize and audience prize during the 93rd Japan Music Competition in 2024.

She participated in the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists in 2021.

Mei Kaneko is the recipient of a stipend from the ROHM Music Foundation.