The Performers

Coloratura soprano Mari Moriya made her MET debut as the Queen of the Night in the acclaimed Julie Taymor production of Die Zauberfloete conducted by James Levine, a role she has since performed in a number of prestigious opera houses, including Glyndebourne (2008), the Leipzig Oper (2009-2010) and, most recently, the Volksoper Vienna (January 2012).

 In 2007 Ms Moriya made her European debut in in the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, as Liu in Turandot with Opera Ireland, where she later returned as Zerbinetta in Ariadne Auf Naxos (2008) and Zerlina in Don Giovanni (2009).

She made musical history in 2010 by performing the title role in Lakme in the Austrian premiere of this opera in the Landestheater Linz. (‘Mari Moriya was in a class of her own. With a range from almost whispered but still clearly audible pianissimi, to a powerful yet still rounded fortissimo […] the soprano has everything needed to succeed as a top singer. The Bell Aria with all its harmonic and technical difficulties was perfectly sung’. Der neue Merker )

She is currently singing the title role in Maria Stuarda in Linz.

Ms Moriya studied in the Musashino Academy of Music in her native Japan and Mannes College of Music  New York. She has won several singing competitions including the 2007 Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition. She was a National Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was awarded the Concert Prize at the 2007 Cardiff Young Singer of the World Competition.

Daichi Fujiki made his professional debut as an opera tenor at the age of twenty-three in the role of Don Curzio in Andreas Homoki’s new production of Le Nozze di Figaro in 2003 in the New National Theatre Tokyo. In 2005 he performed at the Melbourne International Arts Festival in Green, a production by Saburo Teshigawara and his dance company KARAS and in 2006 sang the role of Giuseppe in La Traviata at the Musikfestival Steyr, Austria.

While performing as tenor, he discovered his counter-tenor voice and began voice coaching under Kai Wessel and Ashley Stafford in January 2011. He was a Semi-finalist in the 30th International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition only 5 months after his switch to counter-tenor. In July 2011 he participated in the Summer Opera Programme IVAI in Israel and worked with Gerald Martin Moore, Ira Siff and Giovanna Canetti. He was a Finalist in the 2011 Rome International Sacred Music Competition.

Mr. Fujiki studied in the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, the Opera Studio of the Tokyo New National Theatre and the Reale Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna. He has been based in Vienna since 2008.

Takeshi Moriuchi was born in 1979 in Tokyo, Japan. He studied piano at the Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo. In 2002 he won the Japan Ensemble Competition as a pianist.

Having studied conducting with Professor Kurt Redel since 1999, he won prizes at the Kurt Redel International Conducting Competitions in 2000 and 2004 and conducted the Dohnanyi Symphony Orchestra Budapest and the Moravian Philharmonic Olomouc as a supplementary prize. From 2004 to 2009 he studied conducting at the University Mozartuem Salzburg with Jorge Rotter and Dennis Russell Davies. Since 2009 he has been working in the Upper Austrian State Theatre (Landestheater Linz) as conductor of the Bruckner Orchestra and repetiteur to the opera company.

Hazuki Demachi studied Kinko-school shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) in Tokyo with Ryumei Matsuyama, a disciple of Goro Yamaguchi, and Enka (Japanese ballads) shakuhachi with Jun Mori. After learning Kinko-school Honkyoku (music played by Japanese Zen monks called komuso), she started to work as a shakuhachi player in an enka club in Tokyo and has performed in numerous concerts as a soloist and as a member of a Japanese traditional instrumental band. Her mastery of the shakuhachi is evident on the CD, "Geisha vs Ninja", the soundtrack for the movie of the same title. Now she lives in Northern Ireland and plays as a soloist.