Yui Hanai

Born in Hyogo, Japan, in 1999. Since 2023, he studies at the Reina Sofía School of Music’s Fundación BBVA Viola Chair with professor Nobuko Imai. He has been granted a scholarship by Fundación Albéniz.

He started playing violin at the age of 6, studied under Reiko Otani, and changed to viola at the age of 22 under the guidance of Professor Haruo Takeuchi.
For violin, he has attended masterclasses by professors such as Gerard Poulet, Nam-Yun Kim, and Michael Vaiman. He was also selected as a member of string players appearing in a TV show featuring Maxim Vengerov in 2015 to perform with him. Later, in 2018 and 2019, he participated in the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy.

As a soloist, he has performed several recitals as a result of obtaining the first prize at the prestigious Student Music Concours of Japan in 2014 and 2016.

In his home country he has also been involved in a workshop of activities to foster, search and develop youth quartets, named Project Q, in which he performed as viola with the Strauss Quartet in 2022.

As a student of the School, he has performed with the Freixenet Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Péter Csaba).