Michio Kobayashi

Michio Kobayashi graduated from the Department of Musicology, Faculty of Music of the Tokyo University of the Arts. He became active as an accompanist when he was a student. In 1956, Kobayashi received the Encouragement Prize for New Artists of Mainichi Music Award.
Around 1960, he began to perform with world-renowned musicians, such as vocalists Gundula Janowitz, Elly Ameling, Edith Mathis, Lisa Della Casa, Arleen Augér, Ernst Haefliger, Peter Schreier, Kurt Equiluz, Gerhard Hüsch, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and Hermann Prey, instrumentalists Jean-Pierre Rampal, Karlheinz Zöller, Aurèle Nicolet, Peter-Lukas Graf, Christian Larde , Maxence Larrieu, Lothar Koch, Heinz Robert Holliger, Peter Damm, Josef Suk, Joseph Silverstein, Gerhart Hetzel, Ulf Hoelscher, Wolfgang Boettcher, and Pierre Léon Marie Fournier, to name a few. Kobayashi also performed with Berliner Philharmonie under the baton of Herbert von Karajan and Stuttgarter Kammerorchester under the baton of Karl Münchinger.
In 1965, he studied at Hochschule für Musik, Detmold. After coming back to Japan in autumn 1966, Kobayashi has been active in a wide range of roles, including as a keyboard player, chamber musician, accompanist, and conductor. He received the 1st Torii Music Award (now the Suntory Music Award) in 1970, Mozarteum Medal of the Salzburg International Foundation in 1972, and the Mobil Music Award in 1979. In 2019, Kobayashi was awarded the Special Prize at the 30th Nippon Steel Music Awards.