Dai Fujikura (Osaka, Japan, 1977) was fifteen when he moved to the United Kingdom. He often composes in direct communication with musicians for whom he writes his works. His works have been conducted and played by artists internationally such as Pierre Boulez, Peter Eötvös, Jonathan Nott, Martyn Brabbins, Gustavo Dudamel, Christian Arming, Alexander Liebreich, Kazuki Yamada, Kazushi Ono, Viktoria Mullova, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Claire Chase, Akiko Suwanai and Yu Kosuge. He works with artists from many other music genres such as experimental pop and improvisation. Dai’s first opera Solaris (2015) has gained a worldwide reputation. In 2017, he was named the Artistic Director of the Tokyo Metropolitan Theater’s Born Creative Festival. In 2019, his Shamisen Concerto premiered at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York’s Lincoln Center, and so far there have been nine performances of this work by various orchestras. 2020 saw the premiere of his fourth piano concerto Akiko’s Piano, dedicated to Hiroshima Symphony's Peace and Music Ambassador Martha Argerich and performed as part of their Music for Peace project. His third opera A Dream of Armageddon premiered at Tokyo’s New National Theatre in the same year.

Major work

2015/2018/2020 Solaris 

2018 The Gold-Bug 

2019 Shamisen Concerto

2019 Sounding Seven Senses with dancer Koichi Omae 

2019 Mitsubachi to Enrai 

2020 Akiko’s Piano  

2020 A Dream of Armageddon  

2020 Glorious Clouds  

2020 Impulse  

Awards 

2009, 2015, 2019, 2023 Otaka prize

2019 the Ivor Novello and Royal Philharmonic Society Awards

2017 the Silver Lion from Venice Biennale  

2017 WIRED Audi Innovation Award

2009 the 19th Akutagawa Composition Award

2007 the Paul Hindemith Prize 

2005 the Internationaler Wiener Composition Prize

2003 Toru Takemitsu Competition Award 

1998 The youngest composer ever to win the Serocki International Composers Competition