Born in Kyoto, Natsumi Tamai started her carrier with the first prize in the violin category at the Prague Spring International Music Competition while she was a student at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo. She studied under Yuji Togi, Hideki Oguni, Ryodaku Kubota, Azusa Tatsuta, and Takayoshi Wanami. After graduating, she studied under Herman Krebbers at Conservatorium van Amsterdam and Ana Chumachenco at Hochschule für Musik und Theater München. During this time, she won many awards, including prizes at the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition, the Jean Sibelius International Violin Competition and at the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition. She has also received The New Artist Prize from Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs Performing Arts Festival, the Kyoto Prefecture Culture Prize, the Shiga Prefecture Culture Prize, and many more. Tamai has performed with many orchestras such as the Russia National Orchestra, the Belgium Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra. She has also held many recitals in Japan and Europe and is a highly regarded chamber music violinist. She serves as concertmaster of Kioi Hall Chamber Orchestra Tokyo, belongs to the Tokyo Kreis Ensemble, is a solo violinist of the Ensemble of Tokyo, and coordinates the Biwako Music Harvest, a chamber music academy for children. Currently, she is a professor of Tokyo University of the Arts. Her instrument is Stardivarius “Ex-Park” (1717) owned by Tokyo University of the Arts