Artists
Mari Fukumoto - organ
date: since 8.2014
place: General Management
In progress
Mari Fukumoto was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1987. In 2009 she graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts with many prizes. She studied organ under prof. Tsuguo Hirono and associate prof. Yuichiro Shiina; harpsichord under prof. Masaaki Suzuki and associate prof. Naoya Ohtsuka. The artist also studied non-idiomatic improvisation under Masahiko Satoh and is an active member of the Alien Networks where she performs musical improvisations.
In 2011 she moved to Hamburg to study early music with prof. Wolfgang Zerer (postgraduate studies). Thanks to support of two-year scholarship from DAAD, and scholarship from Otto Stöterau Foundation, she accomplished the master study of organ and early music at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg with the best score and with honors (2013).
She also completed studies in organ concert performance in Hamburg with the best score and honors. The studies were supported by the scholarship from Rohm Music Foundation, Japan in 2016. Next she studied church music at the same university (Bachelor) with a support by Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan. Currently she continues her Master study in church music in Hamburg. Her Teachers are: Prof. Jan Ernst (improvisation), Christoph Schlechter and Prof. Hannelotte Pardall (choir conducting), Prof. Frank Löhr (conducting), Prof. Carsten Lohff, Prof. Volkhardt Preuß and Prof. Menno van Delft (basso continuo).
In 2012 Mari Fukumoto won the 1st prize as the first Japanese 1st prizewinner at the 7th International Organ Competition Musashino-Tokyo, Japan; in 2013 she won Johann Pachelbel Prize (1st prize) at the International Organ Competition of the 62nd International Organ week in Nuremberg, Germany and in 2014 she became two 1st prizes winner: in the 4th International Competition Daniel Herz in Brixen and in the 3rd International Organ Competition Agati-Tronci, in Pistoia.
Mari Fukumoto has given many recitals among others in the Cathedrals in Salzburg, Moscow, Schwerin and Brixen, in St. Michaelis and St. Petri churches in Hamburg, in numerous festivals such as Ansbach Bach Week (Germany), Badia Musica (Italy), Organ Festival in Liepaja (Latvia), Allegretto Zilina (Slovakia), BEAST FEaST in Birmingham (Great Britain) and Sonus ex Machina Festival in Poznań (Poland).
She has performed in renowned concert halls such as Suntory Hall Tokyo, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Philharmonie Essen, Concert Hall Bamberg or the Yaroslavl Philharmonic, also as concert soloist with such orchestras as Kyoto Symphony Orchestra or Capella Bydgostiensis of the Pomeranian Philhamronic in Bydgoszcz.
Recently Mari Fukumoto performed with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra. In April 2020 she will share the stage with Ton Koopman and Thierry Escaich in the great opening concert of the new organ of the National Forum of Music in Wrocław. Later, in the 2020/2021 season, she will perform there with the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra (Haendel Organ Concertos) and with the NFM Leopoldinum chamber orchestra (Panufnik Metasinfonia and Poulenc Concerto). In September 2020, Mari Fukumoto will perform with the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra (Jongen Sinfonia Concertante and Saint-Saëns Symphony No.3) and with Tokyo City Philharmonic (Jongen Sinfonia Concertante).
Mari Fukumoto's wide repertoire ranges from early music, with her special interest to German baroque and romantic music, through romantic works to contemporary compositions and improvisation.
Mari Fukomoto's performances were recorded and broadcast by NDR, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Japanese broadcasting station TBS, NHK and other radio stations. In 2014 Naxos released the first solo album by Mari Fukomoto, which is available around the world. The artist's second album will be released in 2020.
Currently she teaches at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar.
More information at: www.fukumotomari.com