Biography

Tohi Harada is currently studying in London at the Royal Academy of Music on a major scholarship and his remarkable talent has already come to international notice through appearances at many European competitions and guitar festivals.

Born in Yokohama, he first took up the guitar at the age of 3 and during his childhood in Japan won first place in more than ten junior competitions. Later, he became actively involved in outreach work, volunteering and performing in various care homes. In 2019, he was awarded 1st Prize at the East End International Guitar Competition in Japan and this led to the opportunity to release his first debut album ‘To-i’ in 2020, which received critical acclaim in the Japanese press. In his debut solo recital in 2021, he played a transcription of Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’, which gained nationwide attention and was broadcast on Japanese national television. In the same year he decided to pursue his undergraduate degree programme abroad, in order to study at the Royal Academy of Music.

Notable among the awards he has subsequently received are 2nd and  Audience Prizes at the Aalborg Guitar Competition (Denmark) in 2022, and 1st Prizes at the Marku International Guitar Competition(Albania)  and Veria International Guitar Competition (Greece) in 2023; the ‘Ida Presti’ International Guitar Competition (Croatia), Guitar Art International Competition (Serbia) and Brussels International Guitar Competition (Belgium) in 2024; and the Gröningen International Guitar Competition (Netherlands), Joaquín Rodrigo Online Guitar Competition (Italy) and Olsztyn ‘Joaquín Rodrigo’  International Guitar Competition (Poland) in 2025.

In 2026, as he progressed to the postgraduate programme, Tohi won the RAM’s Guitar Concerto Prize, was selected as a Julian Bream Trust Scholar for the fourth consecutive year, joined the Countess of Munster Trust’s Recital Scheme and received a Hattori Music Foundation Senior Award.  Having previously won the Worshipful Company of Musicians’ Ivor Mairants Guitar Award, he has now achieved the unique feat of adding to this the Company’s Prince’s Prize and New Elizabethan Award.

Award: Ivor Mairants Guitar Award 2025, Prince’s Prize 2026, New Elizabethan Award 2026