Peter Friis Johansson, Piano

Biography

By his powerful yet incredibly nuanced sound and flawless technique, Peter Friis Johansson has emerged as one of Scandinavia’s most interesting performers. He has toured extensively and appeared at some of the world’s most important venues, including the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and the Musikverein, Vienna.  He gave his debut recital in New York in 2014. In 2009 he became the artist in residence at Swedish Radio P2, and has since then been a recurring soloist with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Friis Johansson is the winner of the 2014 International Piano-e-Competition in Fairbanks, Alaska, where he also received the Franz Schubert award. He has achieved formidable results in other international competitions, such as the Scottish International Piano Competition 2010, the Nordic Piano Competition 2008 and 2010, and the Southern Highlands International Piano Competition 2011. He has made numerous radio recordings that have been broadcast live in the EBU.

Peter Friis Johansson is currently pursuing many projects, including performing the eleven completed piano sonatas of Franz Schubert. He is also a keen performer of contemporary music and is scheduled to premiere piano concertos by Andrea Tarrodi and Sven-David Sandström with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. He has previously premiered more than fifteen solo and chamber music works by, among others, Thea Musgrave and Sunleif Rasmussen.

Apart from his solo career, Mr. Friis Johansson is a highly sought after chamber musician and has established duo collaborations with some of the finest European musicians. While still a student, he recorded cello sonatas by Brahms and Britten together with Jakob Koranyi. The recording was met with great critical acclaim, topped the charts in Sweden, and was dubbed recording of the year 2007 by MusicWeb International. Together with clarinetist Emil Jonason Mr. Friis Johansson forms the duo Emil&Peter which explores innovative new ways of performing music. Their next program 'Worst of Emil&Peter' includes music by Bach, legendary rock band Queen and Arvo Pärt, and will be performed acoustically as well as on the Synthesizer and the Electrical Wind Instrument. They released their debut album 'Beautiful Insanities' at their ten year anniversary as a duo in 2012.

Between 2002 and 2010, Mr. Friis Johansson was a student of Professors Anders Kilström and Mats Widlund at the Royal Academy of Music and Edsberg Manor in Stockholm, where he completed the Bachelor, Master, and Concert Diploma degrees. Since 2008, Peter has also been working with his mentor Maestro Konstantin Bogino.