Akiko Fujimoto is a Japanese-born American conductor. Since 2019 she has been the

music director A music(al) director or director of music is the person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert band, the d ...

of the Mid-Texas Symphony. She has held positions as associate conductor of the

Minnesota Orchestra The Minnesota Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded originally as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in 1903, the Minnesota Orchestra plays most of its concerts at Minneapolis's Orchestra Hall. History Em ...

and the

San Antonio Symphony The San Antonio Symphony was a full-time professional symphony orchestra based in San Antonio, Texas. Its season ran from late September to early June. Sebastian Lang-Lessing, its music director from 2010 to 2020, was the last to serve in that ca ...

, conducting associate for the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and cover conductor for the

Los Angeles Philharmonic The Los Angeles Philharmonic, commonly referred to as the LA Phil, is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at th ...

, and has appeared as a guest conductor for the

National Symphony Orchestra The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1930, its principal performing venue is the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It also performs for the annual National Mem ...

, Houston Symphony,

North Carolina Symphony The North Carolina Symphony (NCS) is an American orchestra based in Raleigh, North Carolina, with sixty-six full-time musicians. The orchestra performs in Meymandi Concert Hall and performs occasionally with the Carolina Ballet and the Opera Com ...

Florida Orchestra The Florida Orchestra is an American orchestra based in the tri-city area of Tampa, Clearwater, Florida, Clearwater and St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Petersburg, Florida. It was founded as the Florida Gulf Coast Symphony upon the 1968 merger of the ...

Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra The Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The orchestra's primary concert venues are the Embassy Theatre and the Auer Performance Hall at Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPF ...

, Corpus Christi Symphony,

Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra The Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Lexington, Kentucky. The orchestra performs concerts principally at the Singletary Center for the Arts. History In 1961, the orchestra was formed from the Central Kentucky ...

, and

Vermont Symphony Orchestra The Vermont Symphony Orchestra (VSO) is a symphony orchestra based in, and supported in part by, the U.S. state of Vermont. It is a 501(c)(3) corporation. It is one of the few, and the oldest, state-supported symphony orchestras in the United St ...

. Fujimoto became the first woman to conduct the San Antonio Symphony when she was hired as its assistant conductor in 2011. In 2017, she became the second woman to conduct the Minnesota Orchestra. In 2019, Fujimoto became the first woman conductor for the Mid-Texas Symphony.

Personal life

Fujimoto was born in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. When she was 14, she moved with her parents to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

because her father was relocated by the company he worked for.

Education

Fujimoto earned a

Bachelors of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

and

Music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. She later went on to earn her Master's degrees in choral and orchestral

conducting Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary duti ...

from

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York. It was established in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman. It offers Bachelor of Music (B.M ...

in 1999 and

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

in 2001.

Career

Fujimoto worked under

JoAnn Falletta JoAnn Falletta (born February 27, 1954 in Queens, New York) is an American conductor. Biography Falletta was raised in the borough of Queens in an Italian-American household. She was educated at the Mannes College of Music and The Juilliard Sch ...

when Falletta was the music director for the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. From 2012 to 2017, Fujimoto was the associate conductor of the San Antonio Symphony and its first woman conductor. She worked for the Minnesota Orchestra as an associate conductor from 2017 to 2020. On September 15, 2019, Fujimoto had her first public concert with the Mid-Texas Symphony at

Texas Lutheran University Texas Lutheran University (TLU) is a Private university, private Evangelical Lutheran Church in America university in Seguin, Texas. History The university traces its roots back to 1891, to an academy of the first German Evangelical Lutheran S ...

in Seguin as a guest conductor. In October 2019, she was hired to be the Mid-Texas Symphony as their next music director, a position she still holds as of 2021. In 2021, Fujimoto was one of seven candidates who applied to lead Vermont Symphony Orchestra. She was a guest conductor on October 30, 2021, where she closed the Vermont Symphony Orchestra program with

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

’s Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21 and Suad Bushnaq’s “Sampson’s Walk on Air.”

References

External links

*Akiko Fujimoto'
personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fujimoto, Akiko Year of birth missing (living people) Music directors Japanese conductors (music) Stanford University alumni Eastman School of Music alumni Boston University alumni Women conductors (music) Living people