Kanako Inoue was born in Ibaraki, Japan. Inspired by her older brother taking piano lesson at the local music school,she started playing the piano at the age of four. from then on she quickly developed her skill of playing the piano. In Ibaraki she was taught by professors from the Toho-Gakuen conservatory in Tokyo. When Kanako was fifteen, she went to Tokyo to study piano under professor Fujiko Yamada. Kanako was interested in the way classical music is perceived in Europe. After receiving her bachelors in 2005 she decided to take part in “Musik Zentral”, a summer school in Austria. And then stop playing. However it was a huge eye opener for her. The summer school gave her the oppotunity to meet great piano masters in Europe. Moved by her performance on the piano, Martyn van den Hoek, a well-known dutch pianist invited her to come and study at the Utrecht Conservatory of Music. The following year she went to The Netherlands. In 2008, Kanako got her Masters for piano. Because of her affinity with Mozart, she continued to study Fortepiano at the Amsterdam Conservatory of music under the guidance of Stanley Hoogland.
After a few years of experience in the European music world, Kanako developed a love for performing chamber music. She is a sought-after pianist and performs with like-minded musicians, including: Bernadeta Astari, Rosina Fabius, Kiyoko Tachikawa, Emma Besselaar, Olivia Doflein, Allard Hartkamp, Johan Olof, Mario Rio and Lena ter Schegget.
In addition, Kanako worked as a guest pianist at Codarts Dance Academy in Rotterdam, the National Ballet Academy Amsterdam and the Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet. She currently works as a repetiteur for double bass players, violinists and dancers at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.