Kenji Fujimura

Dr Kenji Fujimura is an internationally-acclaimed pianist, chamber musician and researcher. He is well known for his championing of both new music and music which has been unduly neglected. This is reflected in his diverse and eclectic repertoire of both solo piano and chamber music. Recent CDs include: Trio Anima Mundi – Romantic Piano Trios (2013 Musicweb International Recording of the Year), English Piano Trios (2020 Musicweb Recording of the Month, January), Complete Violin Sonatas of George Frederick Pinto, and The Messiaen Nexus (2014 Limelight Chamber Music Recording of the Year) with violinist Elizabeth Sellars; William Hurlstone Complete Piano Music (Musicweb International Recording of the Month, May 2015; Fanfare USA Colin Clarke’s 2015 ‘Top 5 Want List’). Upcoming publications include recordings of the complete 28 piano trios of Carl Gottlieb Reissiger (Toccata Classic), and chamber music by Arthur Benjamin. As an author Kenji will be contributing to the volume Debussy in Context for Cambridge University Press in 2021.

Kenji is also a multi-award-winning composer. Self-taught, he explored and researched an extensive range of compositional styles and idioms from traditional Western music notation to visual and graphic scores, aleatoric music to world music styles. His current musical language reflects upon history and tradition. His works have been performed throughout USA, Romania, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia. Recent prizes include the Singapore Asian Composers Festival award, William Lincer Foundation Award (New York), and the VirtualArtists International Composition Award (USA). His compositions were also shortlisted for the 2019 Reno Pops Orchestra Composition Prize (USA) and a finalist for the 3rd Cum Laude International Music Composition Prize (Spain). During the 2022-2023 season, new commissions premiered included Pandemic Memoirs (Piano Trio No.2), Ballan Suite for bassoon, cello, and piano, and All Aborad! for flute, bassoon, cello, and piano. His music is distributed by Universal Edition (Wien).

A native of Japan now resident in Australia, Kenji's formative music studies were undertaken in both countries. Kenji completed his four-year Bachelor of Music degree with Honours in two years at The University of Melbourne, and subsequently pursued postgraduate studies in Melbourne and London, winning prizes and accolades as pianist, fortepianist, and chamber musician. His principal teachers were Ronald Farren-Price, Sumiko Hirose, Joane Simons, and Frank Wibaut.

A highly respected pedagogue and administrator, Kenji’s tertiary-teaching career began while he was still an undergraduate. He was on staff at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, Monash University, for nearly two decades, retiring from his position as Deputy/Acting Head of School and Associate Professor of Keyboard in December 2018 to commence as Deputy and Artistic Director of the International Academy of Musical Arts (IAMUSICA). He was appointed Executive Director of IAMUSICA and the Sapiente Group in June 2020.

In addition to his role at IAMUSICA, Kenji is Founding Member of international award-winning chamber music ensemble Trio Anima Mundi, Patron of the Association of Eisteddfod Societies of Australia, an examiner for the Australian Music Examinations Board, and a teacher of piano and chamber music at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music (The University of Melbourne), as well as to a select group of private piano and composition students. He is also on various competition, funding, and awards panels, including for the City of Melbourne Arts Grants, the Sparta International Film Festival, and Chair of the Melbourne International Piano and Strings Festival Competition. In 2015 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, London, for his ‘significant contribution to the music profession’.

www.kenjimusic.com