Mao Fujita

With an innate musical sensitivity and naturalness to his artistry, the young pianist Mao Fujita has already impressed many leading musicians as one of those special talents which come along only rarely, equally at home in Mozart as the major romantic repertoire.
Born in Tokyo, Fujita was still studying at the Tokyo College of Music in 2017 when he took First Prize at the prestigious Concours International de Piano Clara Haskil in Switzerland, along with the Audience Award, Prix Modern Times, and the Prix Coup de Coeur, which first brought him to the attention of the international music community. He was also the Silver Medalist at the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow where his special musical qualities received exceptional attention from the jury of leading musicians as well as Valery Gergiev, who has invited him on a number of international tours since; in Tokyo in 2019, he jumped in at two days’ notice to perform the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.2 with the Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev to rapturous acclaim.

Fujita has been invited to appear in recital at major international festivals including the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, the Verbier Festival, Tsinandali and Riga-Jurmala Festivals among others. Recent and upcoming orchestral highlights include performances with the Munich Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Mariinsky Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, Filarmonica della Scala, and St. Petersburg Philharmonic.

In November 2021, Fujita signed an exclusive multi-album deal with Sony Classical International. The new partnership will see Fujita explore many facets of the repertoire across several releases, starting with an eagerly-anticipated studio recording of Mozart’s complete Piano Sonatas, planned for release in Autumn 2022.

Starting piano lessons at the age of three, Fujita won his first international prize in 2010 at the World Classic in Taiwan, and became a laureate of numerous national and international competitions such as the Rosario Marciano International Piano Competition in Vienna (2013), Zhuhai International Mozart Competition for Young Musicians (2015), and the Gina Bachauer International Young Artists Piano Competition (2016).

Mao Fujita is moving to Berlin for further studies with Kirill Gerstein.

72 Preludes

Artists Mao Fujita

Release Date: 09/06/2024

Mao Fujita’s new recording Crosses Continents and Eras with ‘72 Preludes’. Following his ‘consistently impressive’ (Gramophone) traversal of Mozart’s complete Piano Sonatas for Sony Classical - winner of an Opus Klassik Award - Japanese pianist Mao Fujita presents a similarly ambitious project: matching sets of 24 Preludes by three composers, Frédéric Chopin, Alexander Scriabin and Akio Yashiro. In so doing, Fujita unites the Europe in which he now lives with the Japan where he was born and raised.

The works incorporate a huge variety of moods and styles as their young composer explores varied harmonic and rhythmic devices with panache. Fujita likens the contents of his new recording to a refreshing but hearty sushi meal: ‘If the Chopin and the Scriabin are the fish and the rice, the base, the Yashiro is the wasabi - just as vital, and with that special kick to create something delicious.’

It was only a matter of time before Fujita brought his distinctively weightless, cantabile playing style and crystalline clarity of expression to the music of Chopin. When Fujita included Chopin encores in his acclaimed Mozart Sonata series at Wigmore Hall in London, The Guardian concluded that ‘an all-Chopin programme from Fujita is now a priority.’ Fujita says he was drawn to Chopin’s particular character of expression and believes he was ‘able to make something of this special sound; this melodic poetry and beautiful harmony.’ The allure of Scriabin’s 24 Preludes was no less strong. ‘These are phenomenal pieces, with things you cannot find in Chopin,’ Fujita says.

Photo credit: Johanna Berghorn

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