Yu Manabe

Yu Manabe was born in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan on March 11, 1980.
He started to play the violin as his first instrument at the age of 7. In his junior high school years, he favored listening to heavy metal music and was inspired by many musicians like Yngwie Malmsteen and Steve Vai.
At this time, he was wishing to be a guitarist. He was not yet on his earnest stage of playing the violin.
He received his early musical training starting with the musical camp for children who were willing to become students of Tokyo University of the Arts. In 1995, he entered The Music High School attached to The Faculty of Music, Tokyo University of the Arts. He began to branch out into jazz and at the same time he became interested in improvisation.
In 1998, he continued his studies at Tokyo University of the Arts and started his career as a professional musician by having numerous opportunities to work at studios. He graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts in 2002 with the highest honors.
After graduating from the university, he performed on many occasions as a soloist with major orchestras in Japan such as Tokyo Philharmonic and also performed as a guest concertmaster for Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra and Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra. He has made various appearances and performances on TV programs. He has also performed in a concert and recorded DVDs with Bon Jovi.
In April 2005, he founded a group called “ANOVIO” with the pianist Shigeru Morishita and they have performed across Japan and in New York. The first album titled "ENERGY" was released in April 2006. In 2007, he formed “The Celebrity String Quartet” and released 2 albums and soon after the release they toured in Japan, New York and Los Angeles.
Recently he has been challenging different genres in commercial film music and arrangement in and around J-pops music. He had a twin session with many great performers such as Yosuke Yamashita and Toshihiro Nakanishi. He is very active in the music field, performing in concerts, on TV network and radio broadcasts. He also recorded many CDs throughout his expanding career. Yu Manabe is a rare talent who continues to demonstrate mastery in every genre of music.
In addition, his favorite food is crazy spicy soup curry.