Natsuki Kumagai

Natsuki Kumagai joined the Minnesota Orchestra second violin section in 2017 and won a position in the first violin section in 2019. Born and raised in Chicago, Kumagai has been praised by The New York Times as having “a poise and assurance that marks her as a violinist to watch closely.” Her extensive range of repertoire earned her a position with the New Fromm Players, the quartet in residence for contemporary music at the Tanglewood Institute. This included world and U.S. premieres of works by world-renowned composers Marc Neikrug and Joseph Phibbs. In 2024 she made her solo debut with the Minnesota Orchestra, playing the Saint-Georges Violin Concerto, for which she was hailed for her “fiery and passionate” performance. 

Kumagai has served numerous concertmaster positions, such as the New World Symphony, New York String Orchestra Seminar and Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, where she was awarded the Jules C. Reiner Violin Prize. She was also a member of the Verbier Festival Orchestra. Kumagai is also an active chamber musician, winning prizes at the National Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, St. Paul Chamber Music Competition and the Society of American Musicians Competition.  

As an undergraduate, she attended the New England Conservatory in Boston where she studied with Boston Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Malcolm Lowe.  Kumagai’s past teachers have included Almita and Roland Vamos and Marko Dreher at the Music Institute of Chicago’s  Academy program. She received her master’s degree at the Juilliard School, studying with Ida Kavafian, where she was the recipient of the H. & E. Kivekas Scholarship and the Irene Diamond Graduate Fellowship.