Born 1979 in Hokkaido, Japan, Rie Watanabe began her percussion studies in 1999 at the National University of Fine Arts and Music in Tokyo under the guidance of Prof. Makoto Aruga, Prof. Michiko Takahashi, Prof. Takafumi Fujimoto and Mariko Okada. From 2005-2011 Rie Watanabe studied at the Academy of Music in Karlsruhe, Germany with Prof. Isao Nakamura, Prof. Hans-Jörg Bayer, Prof. Jürgen Henry, and Thomas Brenner Jochen Hoefs.
From 1999 to 2005 Rie Watanabe was a member of the ching-dong orchestra Chantiki Tornade in Tokyo under the baton of the composer Yuya Honda. Since 2003 she is a member of the ensemble for new music Ensemble Bois in Tokyo under the baton of the composer Takeo Hoshiya.
Temporary jobs led Rie Watanabe to a variety of ensembles and orchestras such as the Music Factory Cologne, Klangforum Vienna, among others.
Rie Watanabe performed as a chamber musician and soloist also various international music festivals, such as at the Witten Music Festival for New Chamber Music (Witten), the festival "Piano +" (Karlsruhe), the sound workshop (Berlin), the festival "Sinkro" (Vitoria) , the electronic music festival "dBâle" (Basel), the ICMC (Belfast), among others.
In July 2011, Rie Watanabe played 'Concert Piece for Timpani and Orchestra' by Mauricio Kagel as a solo timpanist with the Stuttgart Philharmonic.
In 2004 Rie Watanabe was awarded the Prize of Keizo Saji-Suntory Music Foundation as chantiki tornade and 2006 with the scholarship award of the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt. In addition, she received a scholarship under the Japanese Government Overseas Study Program for Artists 2006 Akademistin the International Ensemble Modern Academy 2009/2010 scholarship from the German Federal Cultural Foundation and Nomura Foundation (Japan) 2010/2011.
In 2006 Rie Watanabe and Shingo Inao founded Rhyngo, a duet for percussion and electronic music. Since 2012 she has played with Mirjam Schröder "MiRi", a duet for harp and percussion and drums trio "Trio Kai" with Ferdinand Martin and Shinichi Minami.
