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Enid Tsui

Who has more job security – an engineer or a musician? According to the YouTube piano sensation and former computer engineer Hayato Sumino, the widespread use of artificial intelligence (AI) means that the answer is no longer obvious.
“I made a risky decision when I became a full-time musician. But with AI, the world has changed. Now, maybe engineering work is not so secure but the physicality of the human body cannot be replaced,” says the Japanese star following two sold-out concerts at the University of Hong Kong.
“Using my own body to express music cannot be replaced, no matter how generative AI evolves in the future.”
Sumino, aka Cateen, has 1.42 million subscribers on YouTube and has conquered much of Asia in a few short years. He is a celebrity in his homeland and is extremely popular in Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong.


His piano recitals on January 4 and 5 sold out within 48 hours.
The tall and lanky 29-year-old with a faintly Chopinesque hairstyle is a highly accomplished soloist who started lessons with his piano teacher mother when he was three.

He did not attend a music conservatory. Instead, the cat-loving gamer, who played under the name Cateen before making it his stage name, graduated with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in information science and technology from the University of Tokyo.
For years, Sumino made music just for fun, and experimented beyond classical music.
He is grateful to his mother for teaching him basic music theory before he turned five. “The theory was very useful to me. I have perfect pitch as well and can play by ear. So I learned chords and jazz scales by myself easily,” he says.
In composing, the job of the assistant composer will be done by AI. In fact, the assistant whatever will be done by AI
Cateen on the future of music
In 2021, he proved his mettle against more traditionally trained peers when he reached the semi-finals of the prestigious International Chopin Piano Competition, an accomplishment which gave him the confidence to walk away from a promising career in AI research and a steady income.
It helps that he, along with other YouTubers such as violinist Ray Chen and the comedic duo known as Twoset Violin, launched his own music career through creating engaging online content and by self-promotion.
Indeed, concert promoters have found that such online stars are more likely to sell out concerts than many long-established names who boast impeccable musical lineages and are the darlings of serious music critics.

On his channel, launched in 2020 after he finished his postgraduate degree, Sumino lets loose all kinds of keyboard pyrotechnics. Initially he did so in a room of the Tokyo home he shared with his parents and his two cats.
Watched by the two po-faced felines, Cateen films himself playing everything from Baroque, Romantic and Japanese anime soundtracks to his own arrangements that turn well-known classics into fiendishly hard pieces.
“I don’t have much time now and only did three videos last year. Before, I did one every week. It is still a very important platform because I can really experiment there. It’s free, so nobody can complain about what I do.”


“The most difficult piece I’ve ever done is probably the Turkish March in all 24 keys,” he said. This and his version of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” brought the house down in Hong Kong, as did an arrangement of Gershwin’s An American in Paris that was partly played on a melodica perched above the Steinway.
Then there are his own compositions, like the effervescent “Big Cat Waltz” and “Human Universe”, the title track of his new album, released last November, of music that runs the gamut of human emotions.
On stage in Hong Kong, Sumino pulled out other tricks for an audience mostly, it seemed, in their twenties. He played simultaneously on a Steinway and an upright piano with its front panels removed and its exposed elements rigged so that, for Ravel’s Bolero, his left hand could replicate the steady beat of the snare drum.

The audience loved it, including a little boy who showed up with a Cateen puppet made by his mum.
Is this how he plans to continue his career, a musical sorcerer who entertains? Cateen sees himself as someone who radically mixes up genres, and as a traditionalist who continues the legacies of virtuoso pianists who also composed – like Liszt and his favourite, Chopin.
He is open to experimenting with artificial intelligence. After all, he did study AI and music at the IRCAM Institute in Paris for six months.
“The difficult thing about AI is that it always replaces the easiest jobs that humans do. In composing, the job of the assistant composer will be done by AI. In fact, the assistant whatever will be done by AI.
“Before, you would be an assistant composer before becoming a legendary composer. Now, legendary composers don’t need assistants any more. The whole education system will be changed, and that’s dangerous,” Cateen says.

Personally, he has happier experimentation to look forward to: immersing himself in New York’s jazz scene.
“I moved to New York in April 2023. When I first visited New York in 2022 my instinct [was] that this is where I want to put myself. I want to see the bigger world.”
The only downside: he misses his cats.




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YouTube piano star Cateen wows Hong Kong audiences, then talks about AI and his cats

Japanese piano sensation Hayato Sumino, whose stage name is Cateen, in the studio at the University of Hong Kong after his recent concerts there. He talks the post about switching from being a computer engineer to a professional pianist. Photo: May Tse

YouTube star and pianist Hayato Sumino, aka Cateen, on stage at the University of Hong Kong on January 5, 2025 playing a grand piano and a stripped upright piano simultaneously. Photo: Keith Hiro/HKU Muse

Hayato Sumino, aka Cateen, signs autographs after a concert at the University of Hong Kong on January 5, 2025. Photo: Keith Hiro/HKU Muse

Cateen on stage at the University of Hong Kong, holding his melodica. Photo: Keith Hiro/HKU Muse

Cateen has moved to New York, where he wants to immerse himself in the city’s jazz scene. Photo: May Tse

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Japanese pianist Cateen, who recently played two sold-out shows in Hong Kong, was a computer engineer before becoming a social media star


Japanese pianist Cateen, who recently played two sold-out shows in Hong Kong, was a computer engineer before becoming a social media star.


Classical music

Japan