Kaito Kobayashi 2nd prize winner and recipient of Yaltah Menuhin Award of the Leeds International Piano Competition 2021,Kaito Kobayashi was born in 1995 in Yokohama, Japan, studied at the Yamaha Music Foundation and the Ueno Gakuen Senior High School, taking lessons in piano, composition, and general musicianship and received winning prize at the 12th Ettlingen International Competition for Young Pianists in 2010. In 2011, he won the Special Student Prize at “Junior Academy Eppan”, and qualified to participate in “Piano Academy Eppan”. He continued his Competition success when he won Second prize at the 11th Tokyo Music Competition (2013), Third prize at the 20th Santa Cecilia International Competition and reached the semi-finals of the 7th Sendai International Music Competition. In 2014, Kaito began a two year Artist in Residency pogramme at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel. Chosen by Maria João Pires as a member of her social project called ‘Partitura’, Kaito performed duo recitals with the famed pianist in Italy, Morocco and Japan. He has also appeared in concert with the violinist and conductor Augustin Dumay. Kaito performed as soloist with the National Orchestra of Belgium, Liege Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Sinfonieorchester Basel and indeed many Japanese Orchestras such as NHK Symphony Orchestra among others. Currently, he has been studying at the Musikhochschule in Basel, Switzerland under Claudio Martinez Mehner.