Hayato Sumino has taken the classical music world by storm, demonstrating through his brilliant playing and his progressive, genre-crossing approach to music why he is among the great performers of the younger generation: Hayato Sumino is a phenomenon at the piano.
Born in Tokyo in 1995, Sumino has over 1.4 million subscribers on YouTube under the pseudonym “Cateen.” There, he performs both classical pieces and his own compositions and improvisations.
On June 21, 2026, Hayato Sumino was among the select group of pianists who performed the most beautiful piano concertos from across Europe as part of “EuroPiano” on Arte. There, he was celebrated for his dazzling performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 alongside the hr Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Alain Altinoglu. It was with this concerto that he made his international breakthrough in 2018 at the PTNA Piano Competition in Tokyo, and he recalls that he has never been happier than during the performance of this work.
Program:
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2
Hayato Sumino: Variations on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Performers:
hr Symphony Orchestra
Musical Direction: Alain Altinoglu
Director: Andreas Morell
Assistant director: Thomas Vogel
DoP: Hans Jakobi
Camera: Jens Benner, Joel Hess, Sebastian Krausse, Marcel Kunze, Lukas Lowack, Rüdiger Jürgensen
Technical director: Carl Philipp Jung
Commissioning Editor ZDF: Holger Faber
Producers 3B: Maria Willer, Bernhard von Hülsen
A production of 3B-Produktion GmbH on behalf of ZDF in cooperation with ARTE Concert
