Prizewinner CD

After a delay due to corona, the Detmold University of Music is now presenting the prizewinner CD of the Brahms Piano Competition 2019. For this CD, the 1st prize winner Fuko Ishii has recorded works by Johannes Brahms and Joseph Haydn. In addition to the prize money and numerous concert engagements, winning the competition is also associated with the possibility of a CD recording. The Japanese pianist's first work was produced and recorded by students of the Tonmeisterinstitut under the direction of Prof. Michael Sandner. The CD is available for 10 Euros on the website of the university. 

It features the Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor and the Piano Pieces op. 119 by Johannes Brahms as well as a Piano Sonata in D major by Joseph Haydn. "With the works by Brahms, I wanted to illuminate the many facets of the great composer within his creative period," says the Japanese pianist about her personal choice of works. With the Haydn Sonata, the artist was keen to present a piano work of Viennese Classicism in addition to the Romantic repertoire. 

In addition to the Brahms Piano Competition Detmold, which was held for the second time in 2019 by the Detmold University of Music in cooperation with the Julius Blüthner Pianoforte Factory and the Alfred Reinhold Foundation, Fuko Ishii also won the Brahms Piano Competition in Pörtschach, Austria. Her other international prizes include an award at the Jmanuel and Evamaria Schenk Foundation Soloist Competition in Zofingen/Switzerland, which enabled her to perform with the Aargau Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sir Marc Kissóczy, performing Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1. She has also performed at the concert gallery "Il Bagno" Steinfurt, at the "Blüthner Classics" concert series in Germany - both are follow-up engagements of the Detmold prize win - as well as at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona/Spain. She has performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras, including the NHK Symphony Orchestra. An enthusiastic chamber musician and song accompanist, she transferred to the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln after studying piano in Tokyo and completed her studies at the Musikakademie Basel with a soloist's diploma.