Festive Fanfare

Taichi Fukumura is a rising Japanese-American conductor acclaimed for his dynamic stage presence and musical finesse. He is the Second Prize Winner of The Mahler Competition 2023 and a four-time recipient of the Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award 2021-2024.

Fukumura was recently named Music Director of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, following two guest conducting appearances as part of an international search. He begins his role in the 24/25 season as the fifth music director in the orchestra’s history.

Other 24/25 highlights include guest conducting debut with the Bamberg Symphony, and returning to the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra as guest conductor after leading the orchestra in over 110 concerts as Assistant Conductor appointed by Music Director Robert Spano. Fukumura is also Music Director Finalist of the Eugene Symphony, Delaware Symphony, and Colorado Springs Philharmonic, and will guest conduct each during the 24/25 season. Additionally, he will return to the Aspen Music Festival as guest assistant conductor for the opening week of summer 2024.

Past engagements include guest conducting members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in their Community Chamber Concert series, leading Stravinsky L’Histoire du Soldat. He made his international guest conducting debut with the Orquesta de Cámara de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, and guest assisted the Houston Symphony and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He was also invited by the Berlin Philharmonic as one of 10 assistant conductor candidates for Kirill Petrenko and the Siemens Conductors Scholarship in 2021. Active as both conductor and assistant, Fukumura has worked with esteemed artists such as Edo de Waart, Juraj Valčuha, and Dame Jane Glover, as well as Thomas Hampson, Yefim Bronfman, Yo-Yo Ma, and Gil Shaham.

Fukumura served as the Assistant Conductor of the Chicago Sinfonietta where he previously received mentorship from Music Director Mei-Ann Chen as a Freeman Conducting Fellow. Additionally, he worked closely with the Chicago Philharmonic as cover conductor, assisting Artistic Director Scott Speck and many guest artists.

Equally adept in opera conducting, Fukumura conducted full productions of Britten Turn of the Screw and Mozart Don Giovanni at the Northwestern University Opera Theatre. As Staff Conductor at Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras (the only youth orchestra in the country to present annual opera productions), he led rehearsals of many monumental works including Puccini La Boheme.

Fiercely advocating to bring people together around the spirit of live music, Fukumura led many new initiatives with the Fort Worth Symphony including the first major update in their education and community programs in over a decade. An avid educator, he has previously served as Director of Orchestras at the Merit School of Music in Chicago and directed the endowed Northwestern Medical Orchestra to national acclaim within their first four years. Fukumura was appointed by the Mayor to the Evanston Arts Council for his cultural leadership and fresh perspectives, where he collaborated with local artists and arts organizations to enrich lives and amplify previously unheard voices.

Born in Tokyo, Taichi Fukumura grew up in Boston and began music studies at age three on the violin. Professionally trained on the instrument, he received a Bachelor of Music in violin performance from Boston University, studying with Peter Zazofsky. Fukumura received both his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in orchestral conducting from Northwestern University, studying with Victor Yampolsky. Additional conducting studies include the Aspen Music Festival Conducting Fellowship with Robert Spano, the Freeman Conducting Fellowship with Mei-Ann Chen and the Chicago Sinfonietta, mentorship in Paris with Pierre-Michel Durand and l’Orchestre Prométhée, the Hong Kong International Conducting Workshops with Jorma Panula, Christoph Poppen, and Yip Wing-sie, and the Pierre Monteux School and Festival with the late Michael Jinbo. Taichi Fukumura is fluent in English and Japanese.

                                                            Updated May 30, 2024

Taichifukumura.com

Braimah Kanneh-Mason is a dynamic and versatile young violinist. He has performed throughout the UK, Europe, USA and the Australia. Recently, Braimah has appeared as a soloist with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Bath Philharmonia and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

An avid chamber musician, Braimah is a member of the Kanneh-Mason Piano Trio, Festival Academy Budapest Ensemble and Kaleidoscope Collective. He has performed at venues and festivals such as the BBC Proms, Wigmore Hall, Barbican Hall, Melbourne Symphony Hall, Highgate International Chamber Music Festival, Leicester International Chamber Music Festival and collaborated with artists such as Nicola Benedetti, Tom Poster and Priya Mitchell.

Through playing and presenting Braimah has an episode in the BBC series, ‘In the Studio’, has co-presented a radio programme for Classic fm and recorded as a soloist for BBC Radio 3.

Braimah is a passionate advocate for equal opportunity and diversity in music education and is a Cultural Ambassador to Antigua and Barbuda and a Junior Ambassador for Music in Secondary Schools Trust. He has been a mentor at Sistema England, Junior Music Works and a mentor for consecutive years for the Antigua and Barbuda Youth Orchestra.

Braimah is currently studying with Barnabás Kelemen and Eszter Perenyi at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. He is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music where he was a scholarship student with Mateja Marinkovic and Jack Liebeck, winning the Harold Craxton Prize, the John McAslan Prize and the Dame Ruth Railton Chamber Music Prize.

Braimah currently performs on a very fine Gagliano on loan through the Beare’s International Violin Society.

kannehmasons.com