MARI FUKUMOTO
Having graduated in organ and harpsichord from Tokyo University of the Arts (2009), she studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg – early organ music performance (on a biennial DAAD / Rotary-Förderpreis der Otto-Stöterau-Stiftung scholarship) as well as concert and church music performance (on scholarships from Rohm Music Foundation and the Japanese governments), obtaining all the diplomas with first honours. She also studied improvisation and is an improvising member of Alien Networks ensemble. She is a lecturer at Weimar’s Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt.
Her accolades include prizes at the International Organ Competition Musashino-Tokyo (IOCM) (2009), the contest accompanying Nuremberg’s Internationale Orgelwoche Musica Sacra (2013, Johann-Pachelbel-Preis), the Agati-Tronci competitions in Pistoia (2014), the International Daniel Herz Organ Competition in Brixen (2014), and the International Organ Competition Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck in Amsterdam (2017). She has given performances in Europe, Japan, and the United States, including in the cathedrals of Salzburg, Basel, Schwerin, Brixen, Pelplin, as well as such venues as Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and at festivals: Bachwoche Ansbach, Badia Musica, Liepāja International Organ Music Festival, Allegretto Žilina, and Sonus ex Machina in Poznań.
Her repertoire ranges from early (mainly German Baroque) to 21st-century music, including new works on which she has collaborated with their composers. With Scott Wilson she created the Sonus ex Machina project combining the organ with electronics.