Biography

Kazunori SEO

Kazunori SEO has a seamless, warm delivery that is perfect for the repertoire. Yet when called on to supply the requisite bravura, he confidently steps up to the plate and delivers. The performances also radiate a fine sense of energy and unforced stylish grace. (American Record Guide / USA)

The sonority, magnificently timbre without falling ever in the excess, serves the expression marvellously.... Kazunori SEO perpetuates with elegance, distinction and class, the best tradition of the French school of the flute of which he is descended. (La Traversière Magazine / FRANCE)

Prize-winner of the prestigious international competitions, notably "Carl Nielsen" and "Jean-Pierre Rampal in 1998, and more "Geneva" in 2001, Kazunori SEO has won attention as one of the world's outstanding flutists through numerous appearances as soloist, recitalist and chamber musician.

He has performed as a soloist with especially Odense Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Nicolaus Esterházy Sinfonia, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Kyushu Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä, et The Mariinsky Orchestra.
In 2005, he won the Pro Musicis International Award in Paris and he gives recitals regularly in Paris (Salle Cortot), New-York (Carnegie, Weill Recital Hall), Boston, Tokyo as the artist of Pro Musicis Association.

He has recorded numerous CDs for Naxos, Warner Music etc., but in order to realize his ideals on recording repertoire, he created his two labels "Les Ménestrels" and "Virtus Classics", distributed by Naxos Japan, these are his own productions. His produced records are selected among the best in record magazines and in particular his album "The Spark of Modern Times", flute solo, on Virtus Classics was awarded "The 60th Record Academy Award 2022" (Record Geijutsu / Ongaku no Tomo).

Kazunori SEO is also chamber music pianist. He plays in particular with his professor Patrick Gallois and they recorded three discs for Virtus Classics.

Passionate and dedicated to educational activities, he has been founder and musical director at the Akiyoshidai Music Academy (Japan) since 2010. He has been a guest professor at Nagoya College of Music since 2014 and in 2023, he was appointed professor of flute at the École Normale de Musique de Paris "Alfred Cortot".

The flutist Kazunori SEO was born in 1974 into a family of professional musicians in Kitakyushu (Japan). He started playing music with his parents and his uncle, but it is especially in Paris that he accomplished the essential of his musical studies. He studied flute in Paris with Raymond Guiot, Kurt Redel, Patrick Gallois, Benoît Fromanger and Alain Marion at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (CNSMDP) where he was awarded the "Premier Prix" in flute in 1998. He also studied chamber music at the CNSMDP with Christian Ivaldi and Ami Flammer. He obtained the "Premier Prix" in chamber music in 1999 and he concluded his musical studies with Maurice Bourgue.