The St. James Concert Series welcomes the return of Natsuki Fukasawa, pianist, to Sonora. Fukasawa has performed in the series twice before: once with Susan Lamb Cook, cellist, and later as a solo artist.

Fukasawa’s performance is scheduled for Sunday, April 15 at 3 p.m. at The Red Church in Sonora. Tickets are $15 for adults, $6 for students under 18 and are available at Mountain Bookshop in The Junction, by calling (209) 536-9402, or at the door.

The cornerstones of the program will be Liszt’s Dante Sonata, an epic tone poem inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy, and the World Premiere of 36 Views of Mt. Fuji by Sunny Knable, a sonic journey of eastern Japan based on 19th century Hokusai’s woodblock prints. The program also includes other poetically inspired music, including Clair de lune by both Faure and Debussy as well as shorter works of Liszt.

Natsuki Fukasawa is a Steinway Artist whose music career has taken her throughout U.S. cities as well as to Europe, Scandinavia, Israel, Australia, Brazil, Japan and China, performing at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center and Copenhagen’s Tivoli Concert Hall. She has won many accolades and international prizes, including rave reviews in Strad and Fanfare magazines and the Best Chamber Music Recording of the Year from the Danish Music Awards. In 2012, Fukasawa was added to the distinguished roster of International Steinway Artists.

During this current season, she will be appearing in concerts and master classes in Switzerland, the U.S., Japan, Hong Kong and in performances of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 and Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G in Northern California.

She is currently on faculty at American River College and has taught at California State University Sacramento, Saint Mary’s College of Moraga, and the University of the Pacific. She also enjoys nurturing young talents in her own private studio, where her students are winners of state, national and international competitions. She studied at the Czech Republic’s Prague Academy of Music as a Fulbright Scholarship recipient and received a Performer’s Certificate Degree. She also earned her Bachelor and Master’s degrees from New York’s Juilliard School and Doctorate from the University of Maryland.

Fukasawa has recorded for the Classico and Da Capo labels, and her career is noted in the World of Women in Classical Music and Who’s Who in America. In 2017, she was awarded the Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award.