Yuko Hara
Viola
Yuko Hara is a violist born in New York and raised in Japan, currently an established chamber musician based in Europe. She graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai) and continued her studies at the Haute École de Musique de Genève with Nobuko Imai, and at the Musikakademie Basel with Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet). She also took part in orchestral academies with the Philharmonia Zürich and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.
She has received awards from several international competitions and foundations, including the Lionel Tertis Viola Competition in the UK, the Basler Orchestergesellschaft competition in Switzerland, the Tokyo Music Competition, the Osaka International String Quartet Competition, as well as scholarships from the Matsuo and Aoyama foundations in Japan.
Since 2016, she has been a member of the Quatuor Ardeo, based in Paris. The quartet’s recording XIII received major critical acclaim, including “Supersonic” from Pizzicato and “Choc” from Classica. In 2018, she co-founded the franz ensemble in Bremen, whose debut recording was awarded the Opus Klassik prize in 2020.
Her chamber music activity has taken her worldwide, performing in venues and festivals such as the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, Ohga Hall, Kioi Hall, La Folle Journée (France, Japan, Israel, Russia), Festival de La Roque-d’Anthéron, and major German festivals in Schwetzingen, Bremen, Rottweil, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Bad Kissingen, as well as the Aldeburgh Festival, Haydn Herbstgold, and the Palazzetto Bru Zane.
Her masterclasses with Midori Seiler, Reinhard Goebel, and Thomas Albert strengthened her interest in historically informed performance practice. She regularly performs with ensembles such as La Scintilla (Switzerland), the Freiburger Barockorchester, Ensemble Volcania in Bremen, and various chamber formations.
Since 2017, Yuko Hara has been co-artistic director, together with Joëlle Martinez, of the Festival Hirondelle in the Auvergne region of France, curating chamber music programmes that bridge eras and styles and foster dialogue between musicians, audiences, and landscape. She participates in Trame Sonore 2026 as a member of the String Trio Eszká.
