Acclaimed by the Boston Herald as “agile and terrifically talented,” and by the Houston Chronicle as “magnetic… impressive,” Fumito Nunoya won First Prize at the 2005 Ima Hogg Young Artists Competition in Houston, which led to his U.S. concerto debut with the Houston Symphony. He was also the third prize winner at one of the most precious competitions for marimbist, the 3rd World Marimba Competition, established by Keiko Abe. Mr. Nunoya has also won top prizes at many other national and international competitions including the Joyce Dutka Arts Foundation Music Competition in 2007, the PAS (Percussive Arts Society) International Marimba Competition in 2003, the National Young Artist Competition in Texas in 2003, and the 10th Japan Classic Music Competition in 2000.
Mr. Nunoya has presented solo performances in USA, Europe and Japan. He has been invited to give solo concerts and teach at Zeltsman Marimba Festival in 2003, 2004, 2006. Also, he has performed and given master classes at major percussion festivals including “Journees de la Percussion” in Paris France, “Southern California Percussion Ensemble Festival,” “Magic Marimba Festival” and “Berklee Percussion Festival” in USA, “Central Japan Percussion Festival” and “Fukui Marimba Seminar” in Japan. He is also an active chamber musician and has collaborated with piano, woodwinds, strings, singers, chorus and percussionists.
Mr. Nunoya has appeared as soloist with the Houston Symphony, Eastern Connecticut Symphony, The Boston Conservatory Orchestra (USA), the Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra, Atorion Chamber Orchestra (Japan), Bartholdy-Ensemble Rheinfelden (Germany) and Di Repercussio Ensemble percussioni dell’Istituto Peri (Italy). He made the US premiere of “Concerto for Marimba and String Orchestra” by a French composer, Emmanuel Sejourne in 2007. He also premiered two new marimba concerti composed for him in Japan in September 2007
He recently released his first CD, “Red Dragonfly,” which was acclaimed as “…monumental CD…” by The Percussive Notes and “…an example of artistic music making at its’ highest level…” by the newsletter of The Percussive Arts Society Florida Chapter. He has also recorded for Nebojsa Jovan Zivkovic, a world-wide percussionist, Authur Levering, a composer based in USA and Italy, David Gaines, an American composer and “Fate Scores,” a movie directed by Albert Chan.
Born in Akita, Japan, Fumito Nunoya began playing the piano at age seven and the marimba and percussion at age seventeen. He graduated from Yamagata University with a music education degree in 2001 and received his master degree in marimba performance at The Boston Conservatory (TBC) where he studied with Nancy Zeltsman. Mr. Nunoya received a full scholarship with an award from president of TBC and continued his studies in its distinguished Artist Diploma program. He was the first marimba (or percussion) major in the school’s history to receive this distinction and the Artist Diploma.
He has also studied with Patrick Hollenbeck, a member of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra; Tomoyuki Okada, timpanist and percussionist in the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Japan; and Nanae Mimura, a world-renowned marimba performer and alumnus of TBC. He has also studied the marimba with pianists and violinists including Dr. Karl Paulnack, Max Levinson, Kiyomi Takeda.
Mr. Nunoya was recently appointed as a visiting professor at Hochschule für Musik Detmold in Germany, and will be teaching the marimba from Oct. 2009 to Feb. 2010. He is an endorser of Korogi Marimba and a marimba instructor of And Vision Corporation in Japan. His signature mallets came out in May 2009, and his second CD will be published in the fall of 2009.