Fuko Ishii
テキ
Fuko Ishii was born in 1991 in Tokyo into a family of musicians and began studying piano at age of four. In 2022 in September she got the 1st Prize at the 17th Grieg International Piano Competition in Norway. She performed Grieg Concerto in a minor Op.16 in Grieghalle in Bergen with Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra with Sir Lawrence Foster. In 2019 she got the 1st prize at 2nd Brahms Competition in Germany and got the 3rd prize at the 26th International Brahms competition in Austria. In autumn of 2019, she won also Jmanuel und Evamaria Schenk Stiftung Solist Competition in Switzerland and gave a debut concert with Argovia philharmonic under the baton of Sir Marc Kissoczy with Beethoven Concerto No.1.
In season 2021-2022 she appeared as a Soloist with Basel Symphony Orchestra, Detmold Chamber Orchestra, Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra, Kyoto Symphony Orchestra and Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra (PAC).
Laureate of many competitions including the 3rd International Chopin Competition in Asia (1st prize), the 58th all Japan Students Music Competition (1st prize), the 9th Ettlingen International Piano Competition (3rd prize) , the Seiler Piano Competition (3 rd prize), the Japan Chopin Competition (2nd prize). In 2013, she won the 1st prize at the Toho 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”, "Yokohama International Piano Concert" both as a soloist and chamber musician.
Her international performances include those the concerts at “Euro Music Festival” “Bagno-Konzert Galerie” “Böblingen Klavier Festival” ”Blüthner Classics” in Germany, ""Bergen International Festival“in Norway, "Livorno Music Festival ”in Italy, concerts in Spain including Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, in Switzerland, in USA, and Romania. She has appeared as a soloist with the Kristiansand Symphony, Brasov Philharmonic, Poland 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 Hammerklavier Sonata of Beethoven Op.106 in Bechstein Zentrum Cologne and Bösendolfer Salon 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 also worked 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.
After getting support from the Meiji Yasuda Cultural Foundation and Rohm Music Foundation, from 2018 she is supported from Japan Agency for Cultural Affairs
In 2020 she graduated Basel Musik Akademie Master Solist. In 2021 her first CD with piece of Brahms will be released by Blüthner and Erich Thienhaus-Institut.
In 2024, she will perform at Lofoten International Chamber Festival and "Grirg in Bergen" in Norway, and planning numerous concerts in Japan. From 2024 she teaches at Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo.