BIOGRAPHY

1998年横浜生まれ。本名・今野玲央。9歳より箏を始める。
音楽教師であり箏曲家のカーティス・パターソン氏の指導を受け、のちに箏曲家 沢井一恵氏に師事。16歳でくまもと全国邦楽コンクール史上最年少 最優秀賞・文部科学大臣賞受賞。一躍脚光を浴び、2017年19歳でメジャーデビュー。同年、東京藝術大学に入学。

MBS「情熱大陸」、テレビ朝日「題名のない音楽会」「徹子の部屋」など多くのメディアに出演。セバスティアン・ヴァイグレ、井上道義、秋山和慶、沖澤のどかをはじめとした指揮者や、読売日本交響楽団、東京フィルハーモニー交響楽団、京都市交響楽団、神奈川フィルハーモニー管弦楽団と共演しソリストを務める。

2021年、藤倉大委嘱新作の箏協奏曲を鈴木優人指揮・読売日本交響楽団との共演で世界初演。2022年、箏奏者として初めてブルーノート東京でライブを開催。また、同年SUMMER SONICに異例の出演を果たしたことでも話題を集めた。出光音楽賞、神奈川文化賞未来賞受賞。
伝統を受け継ぎながら、箏の新たな魅力を追求する若き実力者として注目と期待が寄せられている。

LEO was born in Yokohama in 1998 as Leo Konno. He started playing the koto at the age of 9. He studied under Curtis Patterson, a music teacher and koto player, and later under Kazue Sawai, a respected Japanese koto player. At the age of 16, he became the youngest ever winner of the Grand Prize and the MEXT Award at the Japanese Hogaku Music Competition in Kumamoto. This brought him into the limelight and made his major debut in 2017 at the age of 19. LEO has appeared in many media such as the MBS documentary program 'Jounetsu Tairiku', TV Asahi's 'Untitled Concert' and 'Tetsuko's Interview'. He has performed as a soloist with conductors including Sebastian Weigle, Michiyoshi Inoue, Kazuyoshi Akiyama, and Nodoka Okisawa, as well as with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, and Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2019, he received the Idemitsu Music Award and the Kanagawa Culture Award Future Prize. In 2021, he performed the world premiere of a newly commissioned koto concerto composed by Dai Fujikura, with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra conducted by Masato Suzuki. In 2022, he performed at Blue Note Tokyo, the first time for a koto player, and also made an unprecedented appearance at SUMMER SONIC, attracting attention for his new genre-defying attempts. He has been attracting a great deal of attention and high future expectations as a young talented koto performer who is pursuing the new appeal of the koto while still deeply respecting the tradition.