Kimi Makino started playing the violin at the age of 3, and started playing the viola at the age of 15.

 She completed her studies in the SOAI high school of music, the SOAI university of Music as a special fellow student.

After graduating she earned a master of concert degree in 2011 at the Haute Ecole de Musique in Geneva where she was awarded the “Pierre Fernex” prize for an outstanding exam, and also earned a master of soloist degree in 2013 under supervision of  Nobuko Imai and Miguel Da Silva. She studied chamber music with Gabor Takacs-Nagy. Currently she studies at the Royal Northern College of Music with Garth Knox.

 She won numerous prizes, among them the 3rd prize of the 2nd Tokyo International Viola Competition and the Kyoto Aoyama Music Award. She has performed as a soloist with Japan Century Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Manchester Beethoven Orchestra, SOAI Orchestra and TOHO-Gakuen Orchestra.

 She participated in various festivals including the VIola Spaces, the Verbier Festival Academy, the Takefu International Music Festival, the Festial Groba, Les Estivals de Megève, the Lucerne Festival Academy, ManiFest d'Ircam and les jardins musicaux.

She received the ROHM Music Foundation Scholarship from 2009 to 2012.