Fuko Ishii, piano (Japan)
Fuko Ishii was born in 1991 in Tokyo into a family of musicians and began studying piano at age of four. In 2019 she got the First prize at 2nd Brahms Competition in Germany and got the Third prize at the 26th International Brahms competition in Austria. In autumn of 2019, she won also Jmanuel und Evamaria Schenk Stiftung Soloist Competition in Switzerland and gave a debut concert with Argovia Philharmonic under the baton of Sir Marc Kissoczy with Beethoven Concerto No 1. In 2020 she is appearing as a Soloist with Japan Century Orchestra, Basel Symphony Orchestra and Detmold Chamber Orchestra. In June she has recital tour in Blüthner Salon in Germany.
Laureate of many competitions including the 3rd International Chopin Competition in Asia (First prize), the 58th all Japan Students Music Competition (First prize), the 9th Ettlingen International Piano Competition (Third prize), the Seiler Piano Competition (Third prize) and the Japan Chopin Competition (Second prize). In 2013, she won the 1st prize at the Toho Conservatory Concerto Competition and the 82nd Japan Music Competition. She currently performs in numerous concerts in Japan, including “La Folle Journee in Kanazawa”, “NHK Best of classic”, “NHK Recital Nova”, both as a soloist and chamber musician.
Her international performances include the concerts at “Euro Music Festival” in Germany, “Livorno Music Festival” in Italy, concerts in Spain including Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, in Switzerland, the USA, and Romania. She has appeared as a soloist with the Brasov Philharmonic, Krakow Philharmonic, Janacek Philharmonic, Euro Symphony SFK, Symphony Orchestra of Landestheater Detmold, and has appeared with Japanese professional orchestras such as the NHK Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan, Tokyo Symphony, Kyoto Symphony, Kanagawa Philharmonic, Central Aichi Symphony, Japan Philharmonic, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, Gunma Symphony Orchestra. In 2018 she gave recitals with program including Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata Op.106 in Bechstein Centrum Cologne and Bösendolfer Salon Tokyo. In 2019 she has performed Rachmaninoff 2nd Concerto in Tokyo.
Fuko graduated with distinction from the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo 2014. After studying in the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, she has been studying Solo Performance with Prof. Claudio Martinez-Mehner in Musik Akademie Basel where she is also working on chamber music with Prof. Kernjak. She studied Lied accompany in the class of Prof. Christoph Pregardien in Cologne, who is a world leading tenor singer. In 2018 she graduated Basel Musik Akademie Master Performance and studies continuously Master Soloist. After getting support from the Meiji Yasuda Cultural Foundation and Rohm Music Foundation, from 2018 she is supported from Japan Agency for Cultural Affairs.