Kentaro Machida

Kentaro Machida is a Japanese conductor and organist. Currently studying for a Masters in Orchestral Conducting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, under the tutelage of Martyn Brabbins and Michael Bawtree, Kentaro is a recent first-class graduate of the University of Oxford. Kentaro is the co-founder and music director of the Oxford Baroque Players, founder and artistic director of the Apollonis Collective, and has also recently guest conducted Oxford Sinfonia, Oxford Studio Orchestra, and Wantage Orchestra amongst other orchestras in the UK. He has studied with Roland Melia, and has received tuition and guidance from Sian Edwards at the Royal Academy of Music in London and Paul Weigold at HMTM Hannover. Alongside his undergraduate studies, Kentaro was the Senior Organ Scholar at Merton College, accompanying the college’s renowned mixed-voice choir in their chapel services, BBC broadcasts and CD recordings as well as on tour, both in the UK and internationally. He gained the highest mark of his cohort in solo performance for Final Honour Schools and is an Associate of the Royal College of Organists. Prior to this, he held the organ scholarship at Sherborne Abbey. Kentaro also holds an LTCL performance diploma on the piano. He is grateful to be supported by the Leverhulme Trust Scholarship and the Doggett Family Foundation.