Yuya Okamoto, born in Tokyo in 1994, received his first cello lessons from Hans-Jürgen Seefluth at the age of six. In 2004, he won 1st prize at the regional competition “Jugend musiziert”, Upper Palatinate, and the special prize of the Bavarian Radio. Yuya has been studying at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich since 2013, initially with Prof. WenSinn Yang, since 2017 with Prof. Julian Steckel and currently as part of the master's degree course in chamber music with Prof. Ana Chumachenko and Prof. Hariolf Schlichtig. Yuya has completed masterclasses with Wolfgang Boettcher, Miklos Perenyi, Gustav Rivinius, Natalia Gutman, Jens-Peter Maintz, Peter Bruns, Antonio Meneses and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, among others. He has won numerous prizes, including 1st Prize at the Music Competition of Japan, the Honorable Mention Prize at the X. Witold Lutoslawski International Cello Competition in Poland and the 2nd prize “Eugene Ysaye Prize” at the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Belgium. He has performed as a soloist with renowned orchestras, including the Brussels Philharmonic, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, Bad Reichenhall Philharmonic, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. He has played chamber music with Vadim Repin, Arabella Steinbacher, Svetlin Roussev, Philippe Graffin, Nobuko Imai, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Kniazev, Michie Koyama, Robert Kulek and Krystian Zimerman.