Ingrid Fuzjko av.Georgii-Hemming, PIANIST
Born in Berlin to a Japanese pianist mother and a
Russian-Swedish architect father.
Fuzjko relocated to Tokyo, Japan at the age of five to
be raised only by her mother, and also received piano lessons
under her guidance. At the age of ten, Leonid Kreutzer,
a Russian-born German pianist and her father’s longtime
friend, started giving her piano lessons. At this point,
he had predicted Fuzjko’s international success as
a pianist. At 17, Fuzjko made her concert debut while still
a high school student, and later won various prizes in
major domestic competitions, such as the NHK Mainichi Music
Contest and the Bunka Radio Broadcasting Co. Music Prize.
She then began her professional career by collaborating
with the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and other Japanese
Orchestras. Samson François who had just happened
to be visiting Japan, heard her play and praised her musicianship
and interpretation of Chopin and Liszt.
At the age of 28, Fuzjko went to the Berlin Institute
of Music to further her musical studies. Her distinct performance
led her to a professional concert career in Europe. After
graduation, she moved to Vienna lauded by eminent musicians
such as composer/conductor Bruno Maderna, who offered her
a soloist contract with support by Leonard Bernstein, which
Fuzjko is still proud of to this day.
However, it was also during this time that Fuzjko suffered
from a very high fever which caused her to lose her hearing
just before a recital that was to put the final stamp on
her ability as a top performer. In the midst of her despair,
she moved to Stockholm to receive medical care. During
her stay in Stockholm she taught piano, and at the same
time performed for the Swedish and German broadcasting
station which was praised.
In 1996, she returned to Japan, and held concerts at her
alma mater, TNUFM. A television program documenting Fuzjko’s
performance and her turbulent life story was broadcasted
on Japanese national television in 1999, which attracted
much attention.
Fuzjko’s debut CD, La Campanella, was released on
August 25, 1999 and sold over two million copies, an unusual
phenomenon in the classical music scene. As of today, fifteen
CDs have been released, all of which have sold a remarkable
number of copies. Four of her CDs have received the Classical
Album of the Year award at the Japan Gold Disc Awards,
a feat never before accomplished.
Since her domestic CD debut, Fuzjko has performed many
solo recitals and has collaborated with Artis- Quartet
Vienna, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra (Yuri Simonov,
conductor), the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra
(Zoltan Kocsis, conductor), the Hungarian Radio Symphony
Orchestra (Tamás Vásáry, conductor),
the Super World Orchestra (Stefan Sanderling, conductor ’03
/ Alastair Willis, conductor ’04), the Dvorak Symphony
Orchestra (Tomas Rehak, conductor), The Budapest Concert
Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra (Ralf Gothoni,
conductor), the National Belgian Orchestra (Mikko Franck,
conductor), the Swedish Chamber Orchestra (Thomas Dausgaard,
conductor), the Nice Philharmonic Orchestra (Marco Guidarini,
conductor), the Cadaques Orchestra (Tamás Vásáry,
conductor), the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra (George
Pehlivanian, conductor), and the Niederösterreich
Tonkünstler Orchestra (Tadeusz Strugala, conductor)
all of which have been extraordinarily successful. In 2005,
Fuzjko performed at a charity concert at the Budokan in
Tokyo, in front of an audience of 13,000, which was the
maximum capacity, and over 10 million yen was donated to
UNICEF from this concert. Later that year, Fuzjko had an
extremely successful concert with Mischa Maisky which drew
in an audience of 5000 people.
Fuzjko’s international concerts include her June
2001 recital at Carnegie Hall (with Artis-Quartet Vienna),
which had an audience of 3,000 people. Since then, she
has performed in Paris, London, Milan, Berlin, Vienna,
Prague, Stockholm, Budapest, Hamburg, New York, San Francisco,
and Los Angeles in the years 2002 and 2004.
Since 2005, she has been invited by the Moscow Philharmonic
Orchestra (Yuri Simonov, conductor) to perform concerts
regularly in Moscow, and has also been invited by various
other orchestras around the world, to perform in such places
as Prague, Örebro(Sweden), Vienna, and Nice.
Although Fuzjko’s performance schedule leaves her
with very little free time, she never forgets about her
humanitarian obligation for others. Such examples of her
compassionate nature can be seen in her actions, such as
donating to the 9-11 victims, Afghan refugees, and to UNICEF.
Moreover, her humanitarian passion can be found in the
fact that she continues to support and fight for animal
rights, starting with providing care and shelter for cats
and dogs. She has also been a vegetarian for more than
22 years.