Celebrated for her "technically flawless and extraordinarily expressive playing" (Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi), cellist Canon Shibata has established herself as one of the most notable Japanese cellists of the rising generation.
A native of Japan, Canon was the first prize winner of the 14th Viva Hall International Music Competition and the second prize winner of the 92nd Music Competition of Japan. In 2022, she won the Grand Prize at Canada’s Robert W. and G. Ann Corcoran Concerto Competition, and the following year achieved first prize in the Duo and Chamber divisions of the GGS Chamber Music Competition.
She was named a CHANEL Pygmalion Days Artist as part of the brand’s prestigious artist support program in Japan. She is also the 2025/26 Rebanks Fellow of The Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School—the first Japanese artist ever selected for the fellowship.

As a soloist, Canon has performed with prestigious orchestras such as the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, and the Gumma Symphony Orchestra, collaborating with notable conductors including Joshua Weilerstein, Naoto Otomo, and Toshiaki Umeda. In October 2023, Canon gave the Japanese premiere of Fazıl Say’s Cello Concerto, Never Give Up, alongside Shimpei Sasaki and Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa.

In January 2023, Canon released her debut album Canon Shibata in Concert on Octavia Records, later featured in Record Geijutsu magazine. That October, she also began contributing serialized articles to the Japanese classical music magazine Sarasate.

Canon recently graduated with program honors from Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, where she studied under Hans Jørgen Jensen. She previously earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music, studying with Andrés Díaz and Hans Jørgen Jensen.

Canon Shibata performs on a rare 1694 Giovanni Grancino cello, generously loaned by the Munetsugu Collection, and a Eugène Sartory bow, loaned by Mr. Kenji Nishimura. She is supported by the Ezoe Memorial Recruit Foundation, Rohm Music Foundation, Yamaha Music Foundation, Rotary Japan Showa, and the Tokuji Munetsugu Music Foundation, and has received the Daiko Foundation’s Scholarship Study Prize and recognition as a 2025 Luminarts Fellow in Classical Music.