Kentaro Machida is a Japanese conductor and winner of the 7th International Athens Conducting Competition. He was selected as one of five conductors internationally by Riccardo Muti for the Italian Opera Academy in Tokyo, where he participated in masterclasses and conducted Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. He has conducted orchestras including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches-Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt, Warmian-Masurian Philharmonic Orchestra, and Cyprus Symphony Orchestra.

Kentaro completed a master’s degree in orchestral conducting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, studying with Martyn Brabbins, and he is currently undertaking the Advanced Professional Training Programme at the Universität der Künste Berlin. A graduate of the University of Oxford, he was Organ Scholar at Merton College and is an Associate of the Royal College of Organists.