Kenji Matsumoto

After graduating from the clarinet course of the Paris Conservatory with the Léon Leblanc Special Prize, Matsumoto began his performance career in earnest. He studied the clarinet under Akira Tsunoda, Koichi Hamanaka, Kazuko Ninomiya, Kahori Takemori, Michel Arrignon, Jérôme-Julien Laferrière, and Alain Damiens, and chamber music with Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Jean-Guyan Keras, and Daria Hovora. After winning top prizes at the 6th Japan Woodwind Competition, the 4th Japan Clarinet Competition, and the 22nd Toulon International Music Competition, he joined the NHK Symphony Orchestra in 2002. Matsumoto currently serves as a Principal clarinetist. In addition to being an active performer as a member of the Trio Cinq Anches and the chamber orchestra, ARCUS, he is also active in the field of education, focusing on teaching the next generation as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Tokyo College of Music and as a professor at the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music.