After graduating from the Toho Gakuen Music High School, Mari Nambu further studied at the Toho Gakuen School of Music and its graduate school. She has won many prizes at various competitions including the 10th Kanagawa Music Competition. Her teachers include Kimihiko Kitajima, Nobuyoshi Kato, Minoru Nojima, and Katsurako Mikami. In 2001, Nambu began studying under Balázs Szokolay and Kornél Zempléni at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music where she performed numerous recitals of both solo and chamber music. After returning to Japan in September 2004, she participated in the Karuizawa International Music Festival and Pacific Music Festival. She has presented recitals in Tokyo, Yokohama, and Osaka, and has performed with the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra and Tokyo University of Science Orchestra. Currently, along with her performance activities, Nambu is an accompanist with the Strings Course of the Toho Gakuen School of Music and a part-time lecturer at the Showa University of Music. She is a member of the Yokohama Music Culture Society. This is her fourth appearance at PMF.