Born in Tokyo in 1982, Kotaro Fukuma started learning piano in Japan at the age of 5 and obtained many high awards in national competitions. After finishing high school in 2001, Kotaro went to Europe to study music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (2001-2005) with Bruno Rigutto and Marie-Françoise Bucquet, then at the Univeristät der Künste Berlin (2005-) with Klaus Hellwig and at the International Piano Academy Lake Como in Italy (2006-2009). He also has studied with several great masters of the piano, including Leon Fleisher, Mitsuko Uchida, Richard Goode, Alicia de Larrocha, Maria Joao Pires, Andreas Steier and Aldo Ciccolini.
At the age of 20, Kotaro won both First Prize and the Chopin Prize at the 15th Cleveland International Piano Competition in 2003. Since his debut recital at Lincoln Center in New York in the same year, he has performed more than 50 concerts in the USA. He has also performed regularly in Europe, South Africa and Asia.
Kotaro Fukuma has been a soloist with a number of prestigious orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, Ile de France National Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Galicia, and New Japan Philharmonic, under the direction of such conductors as Lawrence L. Smith, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Hannu Lintu, François-Xavier Roth and Jahja Ling. He has also been invited to play at major music festivals, including Duszniki Chopin in Poland; Young Euro Classic in Germany; Auvers-sur-Oise, Piano aux Jacobins, Piano en Valois, Cannes and Annecy in France; Musical Septembre in Switzerland; Santander and Albeniz en contexto in Spain; CIMA in Italy; Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in the USA; 100 Pianists and Piano Etoile series in Japan. His performances and recordings have been broadcast in the USA (WNYC, WCLV, WPR), in Germany (Deutschlandfunk), in France (France 2, France Musique), in Finland (YLE), in Japan (NHK, NHK-FM, TBS), in Spain (TVE, Radio Clasica), in South Africa (Classic FM), in Italy (Classica FM) and in Poland (TVP3).
Passionate about contemporary music, Kotaro has performed world and national premieres of works by Toru Takemitsu, Mutsuo Shishido, Renaud Gagneux, Thierry Escaich, Thierry Huillet, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Seongju Oh and Francesco Milita.
He is the youngest pianist to record a commercial CD set of the Iberia by Albeniz (Harmony label), as well as all Novelletten by Schumann and the piano works by Toru Takemitsu (Naxos label), which have received critical praise in such music magazines as Diapasons, American Music Records, Monde de la Musique, Bayern 4 Klassik and Classic Today. His new album releases in September 2010 under the Accustika label and features the Concert Etudes by Franz Liszt. He has a recital project in 2011 with various concert etudes by Liszt, Ligeti and Liapunov under the title of "Etudes Li...".
During 2010 Kotaro Fukuma will be performing in the USA, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Finland, Japan and the Dominican Republic. In 2011 Kotaro plans his first concert tour to South America, in addition to tours in South Africa, Spain, France, Japan and Germany.
Kotaro Fukuma is currently based in Berlin.