Hikaru Kanki is a Japanese pianist and chamber musician. Her concert activities have taken her to venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York City, Wigmore Hall in London, Semperoper Dresden, as well as to festivals such as Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker and LIEDBasel.

She completed all of her formal studies to the level of Soloklasse (Konzertexamen) under the tutelage of Roland Krüger and Jan Philip Schulze at the Hanover University of Music, Drama, and Media. She has received additional instruction with artists such as Bernd Goetzke, Ian Fountain, Walter Blankenheim, Vladimir Ovchinnikov, Andrzej Jasinski, Brigitte Fassbaender, Renée Fleming, Peter Schreier, Anne Le Bozec, and Hartmut Höll.

Prizes include first prize at the International Piano Competition "Lia Tortora" in Italy in 2014, and both second prize and the audience award at the International Lake Constance Music Competition in 2019. She received the best pianist prizes at the Helmut Deutsch International Song Competition (2018), the Maritim Music Prize (2018), and the Wigmore Hall/Bollinger International Song Competition (2022). At the International LiedDuo Competition's Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, she received First Prize with baritone Arvid Fagerfjäll, and the Rudolf Jansen Pianist Prize (2021).

Kanki was also a scholarship holder of “Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan,” “Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Hannover e.V.,” and the Udo Reinemann International Masterclass. For the 2023-2024 season she is a Britten Pears Young Artist.

Since 2020 she is a faculty member as a piano accompanist for voice classes at the HMTM Hannover and since 2023 she teaches art song as a “Dorothea-Erxleben” scholar, focusing on making projects with contemporary art song at the HMTM Hannover.

This is her first appearance at PMF.