Spain
With an innate musical sensitivity and naturalness to his artistry, pianist Mao Fujita has already impressed the music world as one of those special talents which come along only rarely, equally at home in Mozart as the major romantic repertoire, with the New York Times writing, "As soon as his fingers touched the keys, waves of airy filigree, beautifully shaped and accomplished, emerged in almost continuous streams” on the occasion of his US debut at Carnegie Hall in 2023.
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.
Highlights in the 2026/27 season include the world premiere of a new piano concerto by Toshio Hosokawa with the Wiener Symphoniker, debuts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Bamberger Symphoniker, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and Seoul Philharmonic, and returns to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, and Münchner Philharmoniker. Fujita also embarks on European tours with the Wiener Symphoniker (Popelka) and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (Gražinytė-Tyla), as well as a tour of Spain with the Czech Philharmonic (Bychkov).
Fujita has worked with many of the leading conductors, including Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Elim Chan, Myung-Whun Chung, Daniele Gatti, Roberto González-Monjas, Manfred Honeck, Jakub Hrůša, Marek Janowski, Paavo Järvi, Kent Nagano, Andris Nelsons, Petr Popelka, Lahav Shani, Kazuki Yamada, and Jaap van Zweden. Previous orchestral debuts include the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches- Symphonieorchester Berlin, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, and Danish National Symphony Orchestra. He is also a sought-after chamber music partner and has worked with Renaud Capuçon, Joshua Bell, Emanuel Ax, Kirill Gerstein, Antoine Tamestit, Kian Soltani, and the Hagen Quartett.
In the 2026/27 season, Fujita continues to appear in recital at the world’s most venerated concert halls and festivals, including his debut in the ‘Great Pianists’ series at The Concertgebouw, as well as other major recital series across Europe and Asia. Alongside his solo recital appearances, he tours with Renaud Capuçon throughout 2027, the bicentenary year of Beethoven’s death.
Fujita is an exclusive Sony Classical International artist. In October 2022, his eagerly- anticipated debut album on the Sony Classical label, a studio recording of Mozart’s complete piano sonatas, was released to unanimous acclaim for its transparent sound worlds and vividly-detailed interpretation. He has performed the full sonata cycle at the Verbier Festival, the Wigmore Hall, and across Japan’s major concert halls.
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.
He is also a member of Konzerthaus Dortmund’s series "Junge Wilde".
