Kokoro Ryu started playing the piano at 4 years old and the cello at 9 years old. A member of Live music now München, she was awarded the Antonio Meneses prize in 2023 and was the 2nd prize winner of 2022 Student Music Concours of Japan. She has also had many other prizes awarded to her in Japan, Taiwan, and the Uk. 

At the age of 12, she showed great potential by being accepted into the Purcell School for young musicians in London, and was also chosen to premiere “Upon One Note” by Oliver Knussen at Elizabeth Hall in 2020. After returning to Tokyo in 2021, she was accepted into the the Music High School Attached to the Faculty of Music, Tokyo University of the Arts, and was awarded the New Artist Award by the Tokyo International Association of Art and became a full scholarship recipient of the same association. She also receives full scholarship of the Salamanca Hall STROAN project. 

Festival appearances include Ozawa International Chamber music Academy Okushiga, Rutesheim Cello Academy, Kusatsu Music Festival, Antonio Janigro Festival, Cellissimo Music for Galway, Le Chateau Kaminoyama, Asian Youth Orchestra. 

Kokoro has made her debut with the Schumann Cello Concerto as a soloist with Junge Münchner Symphoniker in Herkulessaal, Munich in 2025, and has previously shared stages with world renowned artists such as Eva Gevorgyan, Oliver Herbert, Federico Agostini, Alain Meunier, Daniel Müller-Schott, Ayana Tsuji.

Also very passionate about chamber music, She is a member of Quartett Amistella, founded in 2024, which has already won a place in Live Musik Now Scholarship with unanimous vote from the jury, and has appeared in many stages including the Musique à Flaine Music festival and the Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition 2025.

She has studied with professors Wen-Sinn Yang, Kenji Nakagi, Masaharu Kanda, Lana Hsieung, Pal Banda, and also had opportunities to gain valuable experiences from cellists Antonio Meneses, Alban Gerhardt, Jakob Koranyi, Jakob Spahn, Lluis Claret, Robert DeMaine, Tamas Varga, Tsuyoshi Tutumi, Sadao Harada, Natalie Clein, Amedeo Cicchese, Paolo Bonomini, and Hakurou Mouri. 

Right now, she is pursuing her bachelors degree at the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts(HMTM) and a Chamber music Masters degree in the Quatour Ebene Academy.