Peter Friis Johansson

Peter Friis Johansson is known for his fiery performances, nuanced approach, and his insightful programming. He has earned international acclaim through his performances with leading ensembles and his prize-winning successes at numerous international piano competitions. 

The story does, however, begin quite unglamorous. At age nine, in a suburb of Stockholm, Peter Friis Johansson enrolls in free of cost public music school and the rise of his musical abilities starts with Inger Flyckt as his teacher. When he later studies at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm his teachers are Anders Kilström and Mats Widlund, and outside of the academical world, he further develops his musicality with Konstantin Bogino as his mentor.

As a student, Mr. Friis Johansson's career is flourishing. He embarks on several Scandinavian tours and, along with Jakob Koranyi, records a CD that is later crowned album of the year by magazine MusicWeb International. He is discovered by Swedish Radio who makes him their artist in residence and embarks on a tour of Europe with clarinetist Emil Jonason, performing concerts in, among others venues, the Musikverein and the Concertgebouw. But in the summer of 2012, disaster strikes. Peter’s career is devastated by an injury in a finger and suddenly everything is different. For a year he performs concerts with nine functioning fingers and when the injury is finally fully healed, we meet a changed artist and person. Peter makes his international comeback at the 'Alaska International Piano-e-Competition 2014'. The competition is a triumphant success for Peter who wins the first prize, gold medal and takes his first step in his US career.

Mr. Friis Johansson is currently performing cycles of Franz Schubert's eleven completed piano sonatas. He has premiered concerti by Sven-David Sandström and Andrea Tarrodi with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2020, he completed and premiered the piano concerto by Laura Netzel with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to his solo career, Peter is a passionate chamber musician who has engaged in long-term projects with, among others, cellists Andreas Brantelid and Jakob Koranyi. With Emil Jonason, he forms the duo Emil&Peter, whose current project 'Worst of Emil&Peter' seamlessly blends music with acting and the spoken word. The same idea is present in Peter’s solo project 'The Final Frontier', a concert with a science fiction theme that through the use of modern technology updates the piano recital to a contemporary art form.

Peter is also active as an entrepreneur and as a teacher. In the summer of 2017 he, together with cellist Jakob Koranyi, founded the Järna Festival Academy. During 2015-2020, he taught at the Academy of Music in Västerås and has previously given lectures in the history of ideas and rhetoric organized by the Academy of Music in Ingesund. He regularly gives master classes at music conservatories in Sweden and abroad.