Kenichi Furuya is an award-winning bassoonist and founding member of the Pacific Quintet, a multinational wind quintet based at the Zurich University of the Arts. Furuya won first prize at the 2019 Muri Competition in Switzerland and the Pacific Quintet won the second prize at the 2019 Carl Nielsen Chamber Music Competition in Denmark. As a member of the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic, Furuya performs regularly with the Berlin Philharmonic, and participated in the world-renowned orchestra’s 2019 tour of Japan. He holds a degree from the Tokyo University of the Arts where he studied with Prof. Mayumi Ito, Prof.Toshitsugu Inoue, and Prof.Koji Okazak. Mr. Furuya currently resides in Zurich, Switzerland where he studies with Prof. Stefan Schweigert, Matthias Racz, and Prof. Martin Spangenberg with the help of a Swiss Government Scholarship, the Kiefer Hablitzel Stiftung and a YAMAHA Music Scholarship.