During her college days in Toho Gakuen, Sumiko Kurata went to France as a French government scholarship student. There she studied under prof. Paul Tortelier, and graduated summa cum laude in both majors of violoncello and chamber music at Conservatoire de Paris.

Kurata performed with Tortelier and Bashmet at St. Moritz music festival in Switzerland. After returning to Japan, in addition to performing with the major orchestras of Japan such as NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Japan Symphony Orchestra and Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, she has held recitals and actively appeared on TV and radio programs. At the same time, she has been enrolled in the master class at Essen Universitat fuer Musik in Germany, and gone on concert tour to various parts in Europe as a cellist of the French “Quatuor Elisean”. She had been a professor at Shenyang Conservatory of Music for two years. As a professor of the Toho Gakuen School of Music, Sumiko Kurata gives an annual master class in Hakuba. She has also sat on the judging panel on both national and international cello competitions.