Fuko Ishii was born in Tokyo into a family of musicians. She is a laureate of many international piano competitions. She received a First Prize at the 2nd Brahms Competition (Germany) and Third Prize at the 26th International Brahms Competition (Austria). In 2019, she won the Manuel and Evamaria Schenk Stiftung Competition (Switzerland) and gave a debut concert with Argovia Philharmonic. Additional competition highlights include the 58th all Japan Students Music Competition (1st prize), the 9th Ettlingen International Piano Competition (3rd prize), the 82nd Japan Music Competition (1st prize).
2020 soloist engagements include those with Japan Century Orchestra, Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra, Basel Symphony Orchestra, and Detmold Chamber Orchestra. Her international performance as soloist and as a chamber music pianist span concerts in Germany, Liechtenstein, Spain, Switzerland, and Romania.
Ishii graduated with distinction from the Toho Gakuen School of Music, and continued her studies at Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln and Basel Musik-Akademie with Prof. Claudio Martinez-Mehner.
She graduated in 2018 with a master’s in performance and is currently pursuing a Master Soloist degree in Basel. She studied Hammerklavier with Prof. Eduardo Torbeanelli. Since 2016, she has been supported by Meiji Yasuda Cultural Foundation, Rohm Music Foundation and Japan Cultural Affairs.
You can hear Ishii’s First Round performance during Session 4 on Sunday, August 2.