Reiko Fujisawa fuses the sensibilities of a musician raised in the Far East who trained in the West. Following study at the Musashino University of Music in Tokyo she spent time in San Francisco and the UK, where she trained at Trinity College, and with Martino Tirimo, Benjamin Kaplan and Yonty Solomon. She has been in London ever since.
With performances at London’s Southbank Centre, Wigmore Hall and King’s Place, and around the UK and abroad, Reiko has established herself as a formidable virtuoso performer. Recent concerts include appearances at the Stoller Hall in Manchester, Hebden Bridge Piano Festival, King’s Place (with the Carducci Quartet) and Southbank Centre’s newly-refurbished Purcell Room, as part of the hall’s reopening programme. Recent projects include performances of Bach’s Goldberg Variations in 2016/17 and a highly successful recital tour in Autumn 2017, featuring works by Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Takemitsu and Thomas Adès.
The 2018/19 season saw performances around the UK of a project that is particularly close to Reiko’s heart: Clara 2019, a celebration of the great pianist Clara Wieck Schumann.
Reiko was a featured artist at the Japan 2001 festival with the specially-formed Ensemble Tōzai, which combines western and classical Japanese musicians and repertoires. Her chamber music collaborations also include Principals of Sound, a woodwind and piano ensemble formed by Reiko in 2006, comprising some of the UK’s top wind players and principals of major London orchestras. Following her highly successful concert with the Carducci Quartet at King’s Place, Reiko is also planning further collaborations with this renowned string quartet.
Reiko’s recordings include an acclaimed CD of music by Bach, Beethoven and Schubert, released on the Quartz Music label in 2012 and described by The Arts Desk as ‘irresistible’. Her latest recording, featuring Bach’s Goldberg Variations, was released in June 2018, also on Quartz.