Born 1984 in Tokyo, Mariko Hara gave her debut at the age of sixteen, performing Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra in Tokyo. In 2005 she began her career as a violist. In 2009 she passed the entrance exam at the conservatory in Geneva with the highest marks and began her viola solo studies in the class of Nobuko Imai and continued her studies with Antoine Tamestit at the University of Music in Cologne. A keen chamber musician, Mariko Hara convinces with several famous chamber works for viola.