“Music has no genre,” says Ikuro Fujiwara, a talented musician who fuses pop with classical and plays a wide range of roles from pianist, conductor, and composer to creating songs for artists or television and movie soundtracks.

Ikuro has had a strong relationship with Russia throughout his career. His musical activities were greatly influenced by the composer Konstantin D. Krimets, whom he met in Moscow where he had gone to record music for a video game. In 2005, Ikuro performed at a piano concert held in Moscow—a concert with his original music, an unprecedented achievement for a Japanese person, earning him acclaim, and in 2007 he accepted an invitation to make a guest performance at an organ competition held in Kalingrad. Such is the depth of his relationship with Russia.

In recent years, Ikuro has broadened his efforts toward Asian countries. The success of his song “Deep Sea”, used in the popular Korean drama Winter Sonata, led him to release his own albums, Machi and Tenderness, under the Korean label SM Entertainment. In November of 2007 he went as a pianist to the Busan Cultural Center in Busan and Art Hall BOM in Seoul, and in the same month he conducted for the Tokyo New City Orchestra in Shanghai for a Japanese-Chinese music festival. In April of 2008 he went to Singapore’s ‘Sinema Old School’ to perform a solo concert.

Ikuro worked as musical director on the 2008 Korean film Unforgettable (starring Yoo Seung-ho, directed by Song Dong-yoon) and the Hong Kong film Painted Skin (starring Donnie Yen, directed by Gordon Chan). On April 9th, 2009, Painted Skin’s theme song “Painted Heart” won Best Original Film Song at the 28th annual Hong Kong Film Awards (often called the Academy Awards of Hong Kong). This is the first time in the 100-year history of Hong Kong film that a Japanese has won such an award. Ikuro also received the Golden Deer award at the Changchun Film Festival for Best Original Film Score. He also worked as music director on Gordon Chan’s 2011 film Mural. Also in Chinese film, Ikuro has worked on the theme song of The Lost Blademan (2011) and won the award for Best Original Song at a television festival in Macau for the theme song “Xiá Gǔ Róuqíng”of the drama Tsao Tsao directed by Hu Mei. Ikuro’s activities have earned him acclaim not only in Japan but overseas as well, and thus he was specially chosen as a foreign judge for the 2014 Hong Kong Film Awards.

Starting in 1998, Ikuro has produced concerts for his “Symphonic A” project, in which pop artists collaborate with a full orchestra. Some of the artists he has collaborated with include: Akina Nakamori (1998), Asato Shizuki (2001), Mayo Okamoto (2001), Yoshiki (2002), Miki Imai (2004), Ryo Aska (2005), Kirito (2006), Ayaka Hirahara (2007), Ayaka (2009), Garnet Crow (2010), and Mai Kuraki (2011, 2012, 2013). He has participated in the shows as musical director, conductor, and pianist. For Aska’s 2008 Symphonic Asia Tour (Singapore, Bangkok, Shanghai, Hong Kong), he worked with local orchestras as the musical director and conductor. The same year he played 5 major cities in Japan with the Arena Tour.

To further his creative endeavors beyond arrangement, Ikuro has brought together young musicians from Japan to form “Mir Strings”, over which he presides. In 2010 they worked on the score for Nemuri Kyoshiro, a play starring the artist Gackt. They also participated on the string arrangement for Luna Sea’s single “THE ONE – crash to create –“as well as their 2013 album “A WILL”. Yoshiki’s 2013 album “YOSHIKI CLASSICAL” includes music orchestrated by Ikuro. At “Japanese Spring in Russia”, a Japanese cultural event in St. Petersburg, he did orchestration and piano work for Saori Yuki in 2013, Mayo Okamoto in April of 2014, Azami Inoue and Takayoshi Tanimoto in April 2015

The following represent just some of Fujiwara’s work on domestic television series and movies. Fuji Television’s Monday night drama Itoshi Kimi e, Yomiuri Television’s Detective Kurokawa Suzuki, the movie Curtain Call, the Toei movie Under the Same Moon (Onaji tsuki wo miteiru) and Dear Friends. He also worked on the music for Nisesatsu, which is the first film directed by Yuichi Kimura, as well as Kimura’s Omelette Rice, and did arrangement for Yattaman. He has worked on many other movies and artist recordings and concerts.

More recently, in 2014 and 2015 he did arrangement and conducting for “THE MUSIC DAY”, a special music program from Nippon TV that shows collaborations between orchestra and pop artists. In 2014, he performed with Koji Tamaki, Tomomi Kahala, Sukima Switch, and Mai Kuraki, and in 2015 Akira Kobayashi, Yo Hitoto, Yuzu, and Ken Hirai.

In November of 2014, Fujiwara made news for arranging and conducting for Luna Sea’s first official album in 19 years, “SYMPHONIC LUNA SEA-REBOOT”. He has released a series of original albums telling the tale of the 4 seasons, called quatre saisons series. Scenario de la saison – automne for Fall, Scenario de la saison – hiver for Winter, Scenario de la saison – printemps for Spring, and Scenario de la saison – ete for Summer. With splendid guest collaborations, the albums have generated quite a buzz.