Kaori Muraji

Born in Tokyo in 1978 the internationally acclaimed classical guitarist Kaori Muraji has the distinction of being the first Japanese artist to have been acquired by Decca having signed an exclusive contract with the company in 2004. Prior to her contract with Decca she recorded eight albums for Victor Entertainment, a subsidiary of the huge Japanese conglomerate JVC Kenwood.

A child prodigy, Muraji began playing guitar at the age of three, initially receiving lessons from her father Noburu Moraji until the age of ten when she was taken under the wing of the famed classical guitarist Shinichi Fukuda. She was a prodigious competition winner in her native Japan winning many national guitar competitions and it was this exposure which brought her to the attention of the classical music community in Japan. After recording her debut recital at the Tsuda Hall in Tokyo she was invited to play with the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and gave her initial concert with the ensemble in 1994. She continued her guitar studies in 1997 at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris under the tutelage of Albert Ponce and she has since become one of the world's leading classical guitarists and has peformed concerts with leading orchestras around the world.