Elisa Kawaguti was born in Kitakyushu, Japan. She studied at the University of Music and Arts, Tokyo, with Hisaoki Ohno and Yoshio Unno, then at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels with A.Gertler. She is a laureate of several international competitions including Wieniawski Competition (Pl), Paganini Competition (It) and the Queen Elisabeth Competition. Elisa Kawaguti has played solo and chamber music in Japan, Latin America, China and Europe. She was concertmaster of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Flandern from the period 1996 till 2000. In 1994 she grounded the Euro Nippon Music Festival, in which young musicians around the world are united. The Festival organised masterclasses in: Alden Biesen (Belgium), Kitakyushu (Japan) and Bordeaux (France). Elisa Kawaguti is professor of violin at the ‘Lemmensinstituut’, Leuven (Belgium) and first violin of the Spiegel String Quartet. She is regularly invited to give mastercourses around the world and as a juror to divers Japanese competitions and festivals. She forms musical duos with Yves Storms (guitar) and Sayaka Seidel (piano). Elisa Kawaguti recorded several CD’s (Spiegel String Quartet, duo Kawaguti-Storms). She is admired for her crystalline sound and her rich musical soul. As a teacher students praise her for her methodology based on physical awareness.