Hideaki Shiotsu's passion for music started when he heard his brother and his friends play chamber music. When he was eight years old, he was intrigued with the viola but it was too big of an instrument for him so he started his musical career with a violin. In two years he had grown enough that he switched to his beloved viola. His teacher Dr. Madeline Woodward taught him both violin and viola in his early years. He studied with Dr. Leslie Johnson for eight years. He now studies under the tutelage of Masumi Per Rostad at the Eastman School of Music. In 2021, Hideaki was a Concerto Division Honoree for the Seattle Young Artists Festival and won 1st place in both Concerto and Solo divisions of the Performing Arts Festival of the Eastside. In 2019, Hideaki won Seattle Youth Symphony’s Concerto Competition. Hideaki also attended the Heifetz Institute in 2020 where he had the opportunity to study with Michael Klotz (Florida International University), Nicholas Cords (New England Conservatory), Martha Strongin Katz (New England Conservatory), and the violist of the Grammy Award-winning Emerson Quartet, Lawrence Dutton (Stony Brook University). In 2021 he attended the Bowdoin Festival where he studied under Masumi Per Rostad. He also enjoys chamber music, where he has been coached by Leonid Keylin, Nathan Chan, and the Ying Quartet. In May of 2022, Hideaki performed the first movement of the Walton Viola Concerto with the Seattle Youth Chamber Orchestra at Benaroya Hall and with the Mercer Island Chamber Orchestra at the Mercer Island High School Performing Arts Center. In 2023, Hideaki performed in a solo masterclass given by Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt.