Rio Ito, 23

Rio Ito, born in Funabashi, Chiba, Japan, won the Excellent Prize in the High School Division of the 2nd K Flute Competition. She received the Special Prize and the Kanagawa Shimbun President’s Award in the Flute Division (General Category) of the 38th Kanagawa Music Competition. In July 2025, she appeared in the 52nd Debut Recital by Young Flutists Recommended by Music Universities, organized by the Japan Flute Association, at Tokyo Opera City Recital Hall. She participated in masterclasses with Michael Martin Kofler at the International Summer Music Academy in Klagenfurt, Austria, and with Karl-Heinz Schütz at the 44th Kusatsu International Summer Music Academy. She has also taken lessons with Vincent Lucas, Robert Lerch, Yuki Koyama, and Sébastien Jacot, and participated in a chamber music masterclass led by Zoltán Onczay. She has studied flute with Akira Kono, Masayuki Kai, Ayako Maeda, Masahiro Aizawa, and Shigenori Kudo. She was a 2024 Aoyama Music Foundation Scholarship recipient. She has appeared as a guest with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, and Sapporo Symphony Orchestra. After receiving a scholarship at Tokyo College of Music, she is currently a student of its Orchestra Academy.