Mio Yamashita was born in Osaka where she began piano studies at the age of three and clarinet studies at the age of twelve. She has been a prizewinner at the Takarazuka Vega Competition and the All Japan Junior Classical Music Competition and won the Grand Prix of the Osaka College of Music Wind Competition in 2012. She currently studies with Yuka Nagato, Shuichiro Mochimaru and Romain Guyot and her chamber music tutors have included Caillat Gui-Michel, Jean Jacques Ballet, James Alexander, Gábor Takács-Nagy. She is a postgraduate student at the Geneva High School of Music and has worked with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Orchestre de Chambre de Geneve and Ensemble Contrechamps. She has appeared with the Japan Century Orchestra and the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra.