Profile

Mr. Kuniya started playing the piano at the Yamaha Music School when he was very young. When he was 14 years old, he won silver prize of the E level of the 4th PTNA Piano Competition. He decided to become a musician at this time, and two years later, he became the first prize winner of the high school division of All Japan Music Competition, Hokkaido district. He enrolled into Tokyo National Fine Arts and Music University, and earned his bachelor degree in Piano Performance. He also got his masters degree in at Tokyo National Fine Arts and Music. During his studies, he was a laureate of the 61st annual Japan Music Competition, second prizewinner of the 3rd annual Japan Chamber Music Competition, and was awarded the Japan Musician Association Prize and Nerima Cultural Center Special Mention Prize. After earning his masters degree, he was the assistant accompanist for the string department of his university for three years. He performed with several orchestras including the Sapporo Symphony, Shinsei Japan Symphony, and the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra. He studied piano with Hisako Nakayama, Yasuko Hayashi, Koichi Yasui, and Yoshie Takara. Recently, he is the co-chairman of the Piano Teachers National Association Performance Research Committee, and from November 2004, he is one of the members of the "PTNA Talk Concert", a project to expand the love of piano and piano repertoire to as many young generations as possible.