From 1944 to 1948, Etō Toshiya studied music at Tokyo School of Music. When he was a student, he had joined as a quartet member. His quartet's members were Toshiya Etō(vl), Akeo Watanabe(Vl), Kimiyo Matsuura(Va) and Hideo Saito(Vc), who would lead the Japanese classical music scene in the coming years. He graduated from this school and then continued his studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia under the great violinist Efrem Zimbalist. In 1951, he gave his first performance at Carnegie Hall.