Mao Fujita

The Japanese pianist Mao Fujita, who was born in Tokyo in 1998, began playing piano at the age of three. After completing studies at the Tokyo College of Music, he put the finishing touches on his piano training under the guidance of Kirill Gerstein in Berlin. Fujita was only 12 when he won his first interna­tional competition at the World Classic in Taiwan. Three years later, he became a laureate of the Rosario Marciano Competition in Vienna; in 2017 he took first prize at the Clara Haskil Competition in Switzerland, along with the Audience Award, the Prix Modern Times, and the Prix Coup de Cœur. Mao Fujita participated in the renowned International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 2019, winning the Silver Medal. He was subsequently invited to perform at numerous festivals and prestigious concert series, including the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, the Verbier Festival, the Dresden Music Festival, and the Riga Jurmala Music Festival. Mao Fujita has performed with the Munich Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon, and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. After Fujita’s sensational debut with the Filarmonica della Scala in 2022 as the soloist in Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto, Riccardo Chailly engaged him to perform that composer’s Second Piano Concerto at Lucerne Festival and also invited him to undertake a European tour in 2023. In 2024, Fujita debuted with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and at the BBC Proms with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra; he gave his first performance with the Philharmonia Orchestra in March 2025. Next summer he will make his Salzburg Festival debut. Mao Fujita’s recording of the complete Mozart piano sonatas earned the Opus Klassik Award. His album 72 Preludes, which features works by Chopin, Scriabin, and Yashiro, was released in the fall of 2024.

Lucerne Festival debut on 13 August 2022 performing Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly.

February 2025