Marie Fujimoto is a violinist with an international performance background. She has participated in the Bowdoin Music Festival in Maine, USA, where she studied with Robin Scott and Ayano Ninomiya. In 2020, Marie attended the Vivac-e! Music Festival online. There she had masterclasses with Ani Kavafian, Axel Strauss, Hye-Jin Kim, and Xiao-Dong Wang. In 2022, she will attend the Fontainebleau Music Festival with a full scholarship in France. Marie has also participated in masterclasses with Olivier Charlier, Philippe Graffin, and Kirill Troussov, as well as performed in Schloss Landon in Vienna and Schloss Tutzig in Germany.
Originally from Tokyo, Japan, Marie was trained at the Preparatory School of the Toho School of Music with the Suzuki method until she moved to Chethams School of Music in Manchester, UK, in 2012. During her time in the UK, she was selected to represent her school on tour as a soloist and chamber musician in Amsterdam. She was a prize winner at the Hida Kawai Music Competition in Japan in 2013. After being granted Performance Prizes of the Year twice at Chethams School of Music, she transferred to Tokyo College’s Private High School, where she graduated with the Japan Private High School Federation Award and was honored to perform in the graduation concert in 2017.
In 2021, Marie completed a Bachelor of Music degree studying under Paul Biss at New England Conservatory with a Dean’s Scholarship. At NEC, she also engages in performances with non-profit organizations, including NEC’s Community Performances and Partnerships department, Eureka Ensemble, and Music for Food under Kim Kashkashian.
Marie is an extremely expressive artist. She has a dynamic range of tones that shine in the upper registers and resonate on the lower strings. These tones are combined with a natural instinct for phrasing and convincing musicality. For audiences, she has the ability to use the violin as a vessel to communicate emotions that words cannot.
You can find more of Marie’s artistry on instagram, https://instagram.com/marie___1027
This excellence is displayed in The Sarabande Project, a virtual duet project that Marie has participated in with violist Simone Cartales. The project requires that a cello melody, originally composed by J.S Bach, is played on the violin. This task is performed by Marie with a full sound that speaks volumes. It is astonishing that she is able to recreate the workings of Bach’s cello music on her violin, especially considering that the violin is much smaller than the cello. Her impressive technique allows for a hauntingly beautiful legato to be present throughout the performance.
When listening to Marie, one will hear abilities that have been nurtured by top musical environments around the world. She has devoted time in Europe, Asia, and the United States to truly transform herself into an expressive violinist of outstanding potential.