ARTISTS

Sakura Toba was born into a family of professional musicians in Vienna, Austria, in 2005, and began studying the cello at age six with Hakuro Mori at the Toho Music School for Children. Since 2018, she has also attended master classes by Antonio Meneses and David Geringas at the Chigiana Summer Music Academy.
In 2018, she won a gold medal at the 18th Izuminomori Junior Cello Competition in Japan, and a bronze medal at the 19th International “Nutcracker” Televised Contest for Young Musicians, held in Moscow, Russia.
Sakura gave her first solo recital in March 2019, and in April a fan club was founded to support her musical activities. In October of that year, she performed at Suntory Hall with the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Ryusuke Numajiri, as soloist in Tchaikovsky's "Variations on a Rococo Theme.” In November she was awarded “The 2nd Shinji Hattori Music Award,” which is given to internationally promising young musicians.
In January 2020, Sakura was heard on NHK-FM’s Classical Program "Recital Passio.” From June to October, she held a series of solo recitals that were widely acclaimed. In November, she debuted with the Yokohama Sinfonietta under the direction of Kazuki Yamada, performing Haydn's Cello Concerto No. 1, and her performance was praised by Valery Gergiev.
In 2021, Sakura founded the volunteer organization “Music Giving,” which aims to provide young students more opportunities to hear classical music. In August she was awarded “The Nobu Wakabayashi Music Award”.
Sakura plays on a replica of the 1739 Montagnana "Sleeping Beauty." The replica was made in 2020 at the Amorim Workshop in Cremona.
Since April 2020, she has been enrolled as a scholarship student in the Soloist Diploma Course of Toho Gakuen University. She is also a recipient of the 50th Ezoe Memorial Recruit Foundation scholarship and the 2021 ROHM Music Foundation scholarship.

Official Website: www.sakuratoba.com